--- title: What Purdue Pharma Could Face Over OxyContin Lawsuits description: These are the consequences Purdue Pharma could face after the release of a Richard Sackler deposition and many lawsuits. canonical: https://time.com/5520159/purdue-pharma-lawsuits/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-22T22:23:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:23:19.559Z article:section: Health og:title: Allegations Against the Maker of OxyContin Are Piling Up. Here’s What They Could Mean for the Billionaire Family Behind Purdue Pharma og:description: According to legal experts og:url: https://time.com/5520159/purdue-pharma-lawsuits/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47f057efba241c9/698945ac457a527167d608f7/oxycontin-purdue-pharma.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5184 og:image:height: 2916 og:image:alt: OxyContin 80 mg pills are shot in the studio on August 1, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Allegations Against the Maker of OxyContin Are Piling Up. Here’s What They Could Mean for the Billionaire Family Behind Purdue Pharma twitter:description: According to legal experts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd47f057efba241c9/698945ac457a527167d608f7/oxycontin-purdue-pharma.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Allegations Against the Maker of OxyContin Are Piling Up. Here’s What They Could Mean for the Billionaire Family Behind Purdue Pharma > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=9a2d178a-d78c-497a-ad81-c2c7aabb5fb7&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Ideas: How Drug Companies Pushed Opioids on America [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Ideas: How Drug Companies Pushed Opioids on America](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ILWpfO2Z.m3u8) (3:10)  _Published 2019-01-17. Chris McGreal, author of "American Overdose," told TIME how the American opioid epidemic is a result of corporate greed._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Feb 22, 2019 10:23 PM UTC Chris McGreal, author of "American Overdose," told TIME how the American opioid epidemic is a result of corporate greed.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Feb 22, 2019 10:23 PM UTC Executives from Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the powerful opioid painkiller OxyContin, [admitted in federal court in 2007](https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html) that Purdue’s marketing practices and interactions with doctors had understated the strength and addictive potential of the drug — an omission that [many experts believe](http://time.com/5311359/purdue-pharma-oxycontin-lawsuit-opioid-crisis/) contributed to an opioid epidemic that claimed [nearly 50,000 American lives](https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html) in 2017 alone. But on Thursday, the release of [a previously sealed deposition](https://www.statnews.com/2019/02/21/purdue-pharma-richard-sackler-oxycontin-sealed-deposition/) from 2015 showed that Purdue executives knew of OxyContin’s strength long before that $600 million settlement. The deposition, which had been filed in court, revealed that Dr. Richard Sackler — part of the family that founded and controls Purdue, and who has served as Purdue’s president and co-chairman of the board — knew as early as 1997 that OxyContin was much stronger than morphine, but chose not to share that knowledge with doctors. “We are well aware of the view held by many physicians that oxycodone \[the active ingredient in OxyContin\] is weaker than morphine. I do not plan to do anything about that,” Purdue’s head of sales and marketing, Michael Friedman, wrote in an email to Sackler, according to the deposition, which was obtained by _ProPublica_ and co-published with _STAT_. “I agree with you,” Sackler wrote back. “Is there a general agreement, or are there some holdouts?” The document’s publication comes just weeks after the release of [an unredacted 277-page lawsuit](https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2019/01/31/Massachusetts%20AGO%20Amended%20Complaint%202019-01-31.pdf) filed against Purdue by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey — itself just one of thousands of legal complaints brought against Purdue and other pharmaceutical companies by plaintiffs across the country, many of which have been rolled into [one multi-district litigation](https://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/mdl-2804) in Ohio federal court. And as the evidence mounts, legal experts say Purdue could face serious consequences, from astronomical fines to injunctions that could threaten its ability to do business. “One theme that clearly emerges from this deposition, brick by brick, is the foundation that is laid, that shows how even after this guilty plea there was a shocking lack of care for people that were at risk of abusing this drug and instead a singular focus on profit,” says Joseph Khan, a Philadelphia-based attorney who is currently bringing suits against corporations involved in the opioid epidemic. As the New York _Times_ [reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/health/oxycontin-sackler-purdue-pharma.html), parts of Sackler’s deposition are in conflict with his previous testimony. For example, [a 2006 Department of Justice report](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/health/purdue-opioids-oxycontin.html?module=inline) suggested he knew in 1999 that users in internet chatrooms were discussing abuse of the drug. In the deposition, however, Sackler said he first learned of its street value in a 2000 Maine newspaper article. In [a statement](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5745864-Purdue-Statement-in-Response-to-Leak-of-2015.html) provided to TIME, Purdue said the “intentional leak of the deposition is a clear violation of the court’s order and, as such, is regrettable.” The statement adds that, “Dr. Sackler described Purdue’s efforts to adhere to all relevant laws and regulations and to appropriately reflect OxyContin’s risks of abuse and addiction as the science of opioid pain therapy evolved over time.” Much of the material included in the deposition pertains to activity carried out before the company’s 2007 settlement, while Healey’s suit relates to post-2007 behavior. But Khan says the ramifications of the document are still relevant today, given the judgements Purdue could face from juries. “There are straight contradictions between what’s in here and what the Department of Justice has put together. This is not something that will play well in front of a jury,” Khan says. “They don’t have as much leverage as they might want.” The Massachusetts complaint also includes [dramatic accusations](http://time.com/5518949/opioid-crisis-lawsuit-oxycontin/) about how much Purdue executives knew about their blockbuster drug, and when they knew it. According to lawsuit, members of the Sackler family and other Purdue executives purposefully downplayed the addictive properties of OxyContin, and promoted sales tactics meant to encourage doctors to prescribe as much OxyContin, in the highest doses and longest durations, as possible — despite the potential risks for abuse, and despite the terms of Purdue’s prior settlement with the federal government. The suit also details Purdue’s plans to sell addiction treatments, helping them dominate “the pain and addiction spectrum.” Purdue’s board, controlled by the Sacklers, also voted to pay out $4 billion to the family between 2007 and 2018, the documents show. In a statement provided to TIME, a Purdue representative said the attorney general’s office “seeks to publicly vilify Purdue, its executives, employees and directors by taking out of context snippets from tens of millions of documents and grossly distorting their meaning. The complaint is riddled with demonstrably inaccurate allegations,” they said, and “offers little evidence to support its sweeping legal claims.” Purdue fought to keep portions of the suit from being released publicly. If successful, Massachusetts’ lawsuit could force Purdue to pay not only significant fines, but also require the company to cease certain behaviors and make efforts to remedy the damages it has allegedly caused, Khan says. “If you think about what would restitution look like, these are staggering, almost incalculable costs,” Khan says. But the problem goes beyond money. “What would it mean to stop this epidemic they’re accused of putting into place?” he asks. “You’re not going to find anyone who knows anything about the opioid epidemic who will just say you can solve this problem overnight with a quick fix.” Further complicating matters, Purdue’s future hinges on far more than a single lawsuit. John Jacobi, a professor of health law and policy at Seton Hall Law School, called the Massachusetts complaint “extraordinary in the length and depth of the allegations against individual defendants,” but says it is “more or less consistent” with the roughly 1,200 complaints included in the Ohio MDL, as well as the hundreds of others individually making their way through state court systems. And for that reason, Jacobi says, Purdue could be facing consequences much larger than those included in Healey’s complaint. Opioid manufacturers could face a situation similar to the 1998 [Master Settlement Agreement](https://publichealthlawcenter.org/topics/tobacco-control/tobacco-control-litigation/master-settlement-agreement) with Big Tobacco, which forced five major manufacturers to pay out billions of dollars over cigarette marketing and promotional practices. (Mike Moore, the lawyer who orchestrated the Master Settlement Agreement, is now bringing [a new suit](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/opioid-crisis-attorney-mike-moore-takes-on-manufacturers-and-distributors-at-the-center-of-the-epidemic-60-minutes/) against opioid distributors and manufacturers. He was not immediately available for comment to TIME.) “Many people have suggested that the only way out of the thicket that all of these litigants find themselves in would be some sort of global settlement similar to what was achieved in the tobacco litigation, and I don’t think that’s a far-fetched suggestion,” Jacobi says. “All of those, at some point, will be gathered up and resolved.” Khan agrees that the volume of lawsuits in the MDL could hold a major threat for opioid manufacturers. And the results of MDL cases set for trial later this year will likely set the tone for other individual suits, like Healey’s, filed around the country, he says. “There becomes a point at which it becomes mathematically impossible for every one of those plaintiffs to receive what they’re seeking,” Khan says. “Some of these companies are not going to be equipped to survive. Purdue may or may not be differently situated.” ## Transcript 85 % of the world's presrciption opioids are consumed in the United States, which is 5 % of the world's population. And you think how does one country come to be so dependent on these drugs? It is not that the United States has 85 % of the world's pain. Health in this country Is an industry, it's a medical industry. In most other countries, it's a public health service. There's money to be made. [ MUSIC ] I started this story really where the epidemic begins, which is in that little part of Upper Asia where these drugs first take off. In a lot of these communities, people are already using low level opioids. And then this drug comes along called Oxycontin. And it's 10, 15, 20 times the power of the origin drugs. This drug is so throughout the country but targeting these marginalized communities. And by sales force by Purdue Pharma that went out with essentially junk science. They pushed papers across to doctors making claims about addictiveness and they persuaded the Food and Drug Administration to endorse those claims on the label of The pills and these drugs spread very, very quickly. The demand for them rises because firstly they're seen as more effective. But also the circle of people who become dependent and then addicted to them widens very, very quickly. And people want more and more of them. And the drug companies are willing to sell them more and more. And one of the myths that was sold along with all of this was there was no upper limit to taking these drugs. That you Wouldn't become addicted, provided you're in pain. These drugs, which I repeat, are our best, strongest pain medications, should be used much more than they are for patients in pain. People kept taking escalating doses for what they thought was dealing with pain. But, in fact, it was withdrawal symptoms, if they'd cut back. And this created a massive market. By 2012, you have doctors in this country writing 250 million prescriptions a year for opioid pain medicines, which is effectively one for every adult in the country. We're 20 years into this epidemic, and there are now A lot of lawsuits, particularly, by states attorney generals and individual cities against both the drug makers, and the drug distributors, and in some cases, the pharmacy, and even the doctors. There's plenty of doctors that have been locked up, but there hasn't been a single executive, not a single one, has gone to prison for this. The US still prescribes at three, four, five times the rate of most European countries, for instance. So if you're not gonna have another generation who are open to addiction, there's gotta be a much tighter grip on prescribing. And there are people who genuinely need these drugs, but they're not 190 million people in a country of 360 million people. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5520159/purdue-pharma-lawsuits/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5520159/purdue-pharma-lawsuits/"},"headline":"Allegations Against the Maker of OxyContin Are Piling Up. 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