'Purdue and the Sacklers must be shut down completely': critics slam opioids settlement
Source: The Guardian
'Purdue and the Sacklers must be shut down completely': critics slam opioids settlement
Connecticut attorney general says company ‘started this fire and poured gasoline on it’ as many states reject tentative deal
Edward Helmore
Thu 12 Sep 2019 21.35 BST
Last modified on Thu 12 Sep 2019 22.32 BST
At least 20 states have rejected a tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with the OxyContin maker, Purdue Pharma, that would go toward helping with the costs of the opioids crisis, with one attorney general accusing the drugmaker of choosing to “pour gasoline” on the fire it had started.
While 27 attorneys general said they had “agreed to a framework to resolve claims against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family”, the deal was condemned by many others, including the Connecticut attorney general, William Tong; the anti-Sackler campaigner and artist Nan Goldin; and the addiction specialist Dr Andrew Kolodny.
Tong told the Guardian that Connecticut had rejected the settlement because “the scope and scale of the pain, death and destruction that Purdue and the Sacklers have caused far exceeds anything that has been offered thus far”.
He said the state was committed “to holding Purdue and the Sacklers accountable for the crisis they have caused”.
Tong’s comments followed an earlier interview with National Public Radio (NPR) in which he demanded that the Connecticut-headquartered Purdue be broken up and its assets liquidated to help pay costs related to the death of hundreds of thousands of Americans who became addicted to the powerful painkillers.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/12/opioids-settlement-purdue-sackler-states