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OxyContin maker reaches $8.3B settlement in opioid probes, will plead guilty and close company

Purdue Pharma LP has agreed to a financial settlement in excess of $8 billion for its role in creating the nationwide opioid crisis and will plead guilty to three felonies and shutter the company.

The U.S. Justice Department unveiled the settlement Wednesday involving the OxyContin maker, zeroing in on Purdue Pharma’s marketing and distribution of the powerful painkiller, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said in a prepared statement that the settlement “will redress past wrongs and will also provide extraordinary new resources for treatment and care of those affected by opioid addiction.”

According to The Washington Post, the Sackler family-owned Purdue Pharma will admit in federal court to defrauding the United States and violating the anti-kickback statute from 2009 to 2017. The associated financial settlement includes:

• A criminal fine of more than 3.5 billion.

• Criminal forfeiture of $2 billion.

• A civil settlement of $2.8 billion.

Because the bankrupt company’s assets fall well below the “largely symbolic” $8.34 billion settlement, Purdue Pharma will pay the federal government $225 million, with many of the remaining fines waived “to allow more money to flow to states, counties and tribes” saddled with widespread opioid addiction rates and related deaths, the Journal reported.

Meanwhile, the Sacklers have separately resolved civil charges for $225 million, with prosecutors stressing that criminal investigations of the family are ongoing, the newspaper reported.

“Purdue deeply regrets and accepts responsibility for the misconduct detailed by the Department of Justice in the agreed statement of facts,” Steve Miller, Purdue Pharma’s board chairman, said.

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