BRIEF—Sacklers siphoned off Purdue profits after OxyContin fine, say reports

The billionaire Sackler family moved billions out of their company Purdue Pharma as the net closed in on the firm’s aggressive marketing of potentially addictive opioids, according to numerous reports.

The New York Times was first to reveal the findings from a new audit commissioned by Purdue indicating that members of its owning family withdrew $10.7 billion from the company to distribute among trusts and overseas holding companies.

These withdrawals were made between 2008 and 2017, dwarfing the $1.3 taken out of Purdue by the Sacklers between 1995 and 2007.

Purdue and three executives entered guilty pleas in 2007 to misleading the public about the addictive risks of the company’s opioid painkiller OxyContin (oxycodone).

The US drugmaker filed for bankruptcy in September. It is facing thousands of lawsuits relating to its role in creating the opioid epidemic in the USA and offered at least $3 billion in cash to resolve cases brought by state and local governments as part of a wider commitment to help address the addiction crisis, but these authorities want the Sacklers to pay more.