At the end of October 2020, Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges relating to its role in the opioid crisis, including violating a federal anti-kickback law, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. To settle the charges, Purdue is supposed to pay $8.3 billion in fines, forfeiture of past profits and civil liability payments. The estimated financial cost of opioid addiction and death in the U.S. was $504 billion in 2015. In addition to health care costs, criminal justice costs and lost productivity due to addiction or incarceration, this figure also takes into account projected lost earnings and the value of statistical life for people who died prematurely. Because Purdue doesn’t have the cash to cover the $8.3 billion settlement, the Department of Justice negotiated a deal in which Purdue will be dissolved and its assets used to erect a “public benefit company” controlled by a trust that will “balance the trust’s interests against those of the American public and public health”. In essence, the government will now be in the business of making and selling opioids, the profits from which will then be used to combat opioid addiction https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/11/04/purdue-pharma-pleads-guilty.aspx
