Purdue Pharma’s ongoing bankruptcy trial got off to a tense start Wednesday, with former president Richard Sackler asserting ignorance of how many people have died from OxyContin, the drugmaker’s addictive painkiller.
Sackler, a son of Purdue co-founder Raymond Sackler, served as the company’s president in the early 2000s and sat on its board for almost three decades. His testimony in the case follows that of his own son, David Sackler, on Tuesday.
At the start of day five of Purdue’s bankruptcy settlement trial, Maryland Assistant Attorney General Brian Edmunds pressed Sackler on the public health fallout from opioid use. When asked if he knew how many people had died from misuse of OxyContin in the U.S., Sackler said simply: “I don’t know.”
Asked how many had died from OxyContin or the same drug under another name throughout the world, he reiterated: “I do not know.”
Almost half a million people died from opioid overdoses, including prescription and illicit opioids, from 1999 to 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Members of the Sackler family that own Purdue Pharma, including David and Richard, have come under intense public scrutiny in recent years for OxyContin’s role in the opioid crisis. They have denied doing anything illegal while overseeing the company.
Purdue Pharma is seeking bankruptcy court approval of a settlement that would dedicate the company’s assets to fighting the crisis and would see Sackler family members pay some $4.3 billion for broad legal protections.
During his testimony Wednesday, Richard Sackler disputed the government’s statements about the company’s wrongdoing in connection with its guilty plea over recent OxyContin sales and marketing.
“I do not agree” with statements outlined in the government’s filing, he told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain.
