Overdoses continue to drive sales for the Sackler family – accused of sparking the opioid crisis
A company owned by the Sackler family — widely blamed as one of the main initial drivers of the opioid epidemic — continues to reap sales from overseas overdoses, though a representative said the company does not profit from those sales.
The Sackler family, most famous for its ownership of the maker of OxyContin Purdue PharmaIt also owns the global pharmaceutical company Mundipharma. The company is pushing out an overdose antidote, a naloxone nasal spray called Nexoid.
“You’re in the business of selling drug addiction and overdoses, and now you’re in the business of selling drug addiction and overdose?” doctor. Andrew Kolodny, outspoken critic at Purdue University, The Associated Press in 2019. “That’s pretty clever, isn’t it?”
People from across the United States who have lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic thronged the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. blaming the Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma, for the overdose deaths. (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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A Mundipharma spokesperson confirmed that the company is not active in the US market.
“Mundipharma distributes Nexoid in several countries, outside of the United States,” the spokesperson told Fox News. “It does not make any profit from such sales.”
A Fox News spokesperson also said that “it is known that our shareholders intend to sell Mundipharma within seven years” of Purdue bankruptcy plan become effective. “We have no further information or details to share at this time about any such sale.”
In 2019, a spokesperson for Mundipharma Europe told the Associated Press that medicines to reverse overdoses given as a nasal spray are important, given the dismal rate of overdose deaths.
“If they were trying to find a solution, they would distribute naloxone for free,” Stephen Wood, a fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics, told the Associated Press. “They can use all that money they got on opioids to help support a program where they’re providing this life-saving drug.”
Earnings from OxyContin Help make the Sacklers one of the richest families in the world. But in recent years, Purdue and its private owners have faced lawsuits accusing them of pursuing an aggressive and deceptive marketing campaign to push for OxyContin prescriptions while playing down the drug’s addiction.
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A common story emerged: OxyContin user It will form an addiction, then turn to heroin once the prescription drug becomes too expensive or difficult to obtain illegally.
In some cases, they were legitimate patients who followed prescription directions while others began taking OxyContin more frequently when they felt its effects wane. Some took the drug illegally while experimenting with it in their youth, often from a family member’s medicine cabinet, without understanding its addictive nature.
The lawsuits against Purdue and Sacklers claim that internal documents indicate the company aims to profit from addiction. According to the plaintiffs, one of them stated that Purdue could become a “one-stop provider” by providing both opioids and addiction treatment, the Associated Press reported.
An advocate is trying to raise awareness of opioid addiction with his “Bell Man” sculpture. (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Representatives for the Sackler family said at the time that a third party had provided the plan and it was abandoned after several passing references. A Mundipharma spokesperson denied any connection between Nyxoid’s international push and any plans for Purdue regarding naloxone.
Opioid overdose It has been on the rise since the 1990s, but there has been a significant uptick with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, there were more than 80,000 overdose deaths — up nearly 60% from 2019, according to the National Institutes of Health.
A drug to reverse overdose has become essential as a result of the opioid epidemic, especially easy-to-use ones like Nyxoid out there. In the United States, naloxone has become synonymous with a similar nasal spray product, Narcan.
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In Philadelphia, home to one of America’s best-known open-access drug markets, the Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services administered naloxone approximately 19,600 times between 2014 and 2019, the latest full year for which data is available, According to city data.
But medication is not a universal solution.
Once they get Narcan into their system, it puts them into immediate withdrawal. Frank Rodriguez, a recovering addict, told Fox News. “They have to get high again so they don’t feel like they’re dying.”
He said he always makes sure to have naloxone available whenever he drives into town.
“This saved my life,” he said, holding Narcan.
Frank Rodriguez holding a potion of Narcan. The junkie-turned-activist keeps drugs in his glove compartment and has them ready whenever he enters Philadelphia (Fox News)
Regardless of the necessity of an easy-to-use reverse overdose drug, Mundipharma faced criticism for pushing out Nyxoid after the company’s owners profited from opioids.
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The Sackler family’s efforts to sell the Chinese unit of Mundipharma for $1 billion in January 2022 have fallen through, Bloomberg reported on time. There are no other public reports indicating the sale of Mundipharma or any of its units.
Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family have been embroiled in a series of court cases in recent years. The drug company pleaded guilty to misrepresentation and fraud charges in 2007 and again in 2020.
Purdue has filed for bankruptcy in 2019, but legal action is ongoing. The company has offered a $6 billion settlement, funded by Sacklers, that will pay many addiction victims, including states and hospitals. In exchange for this settlement, which is still under consideration, the family would be protected from future opioid-related lawsuits.
