US drugmaker pleads guilty to charges

Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to three federal criminal charges related to the company's role in creating the opioid crisis in the United States.

Board Chairman Steve Miller pleaded guilty on behalf of the company during a virtual federal court hearing with a judge in Newark, New Jersey, formally admitting the company impeded efforts by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, to combat an opioid epidemic that contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the country.

The counts include one of dual-object conspiracy to defraud the United States and to violate the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and two counts of conspiracy to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute.

Purdue acknowledged it had not maintained an effective program to prevent prescription drugs from being diverted to the black market, even though it had told the DEA it did have such a program, and it provided misleading information to the agency as a way to boost company manufacturing quotas.

It also admitted paying doctors through a speakers program to induce them to write more prescriptions for its painkillers and paying an electronic medical records company to send doctors information on patients that encouraged them to prescribe opioids.

'An essential step'

"Having our plea accepted in federal court, and taking responsibility for past misconduct, is an essential step to preserve billions of dollars of value for creditors and advance our goal of providing financial resources and lifesaving medicines to address the opioid crisis," the statement said.

"We continue to work tirelessly to build additional support for a proposed bankruptcy settlement, which would direct the overwhelming majority of the settlement funds to state, local and tribal governments for the purpose of abating the opioid crisis."

The guilty pleas were part of a criminal and civil settlement announced last month between the Stamford, Connecticut-based company and the Justice Department.

The plea deal announced includes the largest penalties ever levied against a pharmaceutical manufacturer, including a criminal fine of $3.544 billion and an additional $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, a Department of Justice news release said.

The company will be dissolved as part of the plea agreement.

The Sackler family and other current and former employees and owners of the company still face the possibility that federal criminal charges will be filed against them.

Members of the billionaire Sackler family who own Purdue were not part of the court proceedings and have not been criminally charged, though the deal they reached with the federal government in October leaves open that possibility in the future.