Neither the company, nor the Sacklers, would admit to wrongdoing in connection with these lawsuits. Over the past two decades, more than 500,000 people in the United States have died from overdoses of prescription and illegal opioids, including a record annual number in 2020. Although a handful of states filed objections to the plan, as did the Department of Justice, those efforts seem unlikely to derail proceedings. Among the new elements the states and Purdue reached during mediation was an agreement by the company to release more than 30 million documents to a public repository, including private communications with lawyers. Those documents are expected to unfurl the full story of the company’s and the Sacklers’ involvement in the selling of OxyContin.

Source: New York Times July 27, 2021 17:37 UTC