Set Emotion Aside in the Purdue OxyContin Settlement
The desire to strip the Sackler family of all its wealth is strong, but prolonging the outcome will only hurt the people it is supposed to help.
Bankruptcy court is not in the business of punishment.
Photographer: George Frey/Bloomberg
The quick, knee-jerk response to the proposed bankruptcy settlement filed by Purdue Pharma LP late Monday is that the Sackler family got off too easy.
The Sacklers, of course, founded Purdue, and three generations have served on the board. (The last of the Sackler board members stepped down in early 2019.) And Purdue, of course, is the company that for more than two decades aggressively marketed OxyContin, resulting in tens of thousands of opioid addicts and sparking a national crisis. Inundated with lawsuits from cities, counties, states and other aggrieved parties, the company filed for bankruptcy in September 2019.