The second family of opioids, a secret family of opioids

The Sackler family – the ultra-wealthy family that has made billions of opioids illegally marketed and the group widely blamed for fueling and fueling the devastating epidemic of $ 504 billion annually in opioid addiction than previously thought, according to a series of reports by the Financial Times.

The Sacklers own the infamous drug company Purdue Pharma, which pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal criminal charges for misleading doctors, regulators and patients over the addictive nature of its opioid oxycodone drug, OxyContin. Guilty plea, however, appears to have done little to reform corporate ethics or reduce sales, says new report FT. Purdue continued to push drugs to doctors, internal sources said, and by 2010, OxyContin sales had risen to more than $ 3 billion.

In 2016, Forbes estimated the collective wealth of the Sackler family at $ 13 billion.

But according to a second FT According to the report, the Sacklers did not simply continue their usual activities at Purdue – the family quietly opened a second pharmaceutical company, Rhodes Pharma, just four months after the guilty plea. And since, the Rhode Island-based pill manufacturer has become one of the largest generics of opioids in the United States.

In 2016, Rhodes and Purdue together provided 14.4 million opioid prescriptions. This makes it the seventh largest manufacturer of opioids in terms of market share, accounting for six percent of US opioids, according to documents consulted by FT.

This figure is striking because Purdue has long denied the overriding role of the opioid epidemic by noting that OxyContin sales represent only a small percentage of opioid prescriptions in the United States – only 1.7% in 2016. The combined market share of Purdue and Rhodes weakens this argument.

In addition, former Purdue employees reported to FT that sales representatives were encouraged not only to ruthlessly expand the sale of OxyContin, but also to promote generic opioids. More specifically, a portion of their premiums was calculated based on the size of the global opioid market. This unusual business movement makes a lot more sense knowing that Purdue's owners also owned a business that sells generic opioids.

Since her guilty plea in 2007, Purdue has faced more than a thousand lawsuits from states, cities, and counties, all making similar misleading marketing allegations that have fueled the epidemic. 39; opioids. At the end of last year, the White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated that the epidemic of opioid deaths and abuse caused an economic loss of $ 504 billion in 2015, or 2.8 % of GDP. More than 33,000 Americans died of opioid overdose that year.

Purdue and the Sackler family continue to deny a role in the epidemic and fight against lawsuits. But Purdue announced earlier this year that it would stop aggressively marketing OxyContin.

Also this year, Purdue and Richard Sackler have been granted a patent for a new form of light opioid buprenorphine that can be used as a treatment for opioid dependence, according to a third report from FT.

The patent application notes:

Although opioids have always been known to be useful in the treatment of pain, they also have the potential for addiction because of their euphoric activity. Thus, if opioids are taken by healthy human subjects with drug addiction, they can lead to psychological and physical dependence.