OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.
Purdue Pharma is expected to plead guilty to one count of dual-object conspiracy for defrauding the U.S. and to violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and two counts of conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The criminal resolution includes a criminal fine of more than $3.5 billion and $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, plus a civil settlement of $2.8 billion.
The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability. A criminal investigation is ongoing.
The company is in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings, and a bankruptcy court would need to approve the settlement.
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"The agreed resolution, if approved by the courts, will require that the company be dissolved and no longer exist in its present form," Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said at a news conference.
OxyContin is a powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off the opioid epidemic that resulted in nearly 450,000 American deaths between 1999 and 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
