The pill pushing doctors should be charge as drug dealers.
3
Let's see. This is an article about rich white collar drug dealers, legal drugs mind you, being required to pay fines for actions taken with the knowing result of many deaths.
In a separate NYT article online simultaneously - someone at the NYT obviously has a sense of humor - we learn prosecutors of a few rich families who illegally got their children into prestigious colleges insist on actual prison time: "For wrongdoing that is predicated on wealth and rationalized by a sense of privilege, incarceration is the only leveler.”
The reasons for the difference are clear and proof positive we have the finest judicial system possible. Damn but we're good!
5
Yes, but are ANY of the Sacklers going to jail??????
6
Not enough
8
In January 17, 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring the production, transport, and sale of alcohol illegal. However, Americans wanted to drink booze so the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Twenty-first Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933. It is unique among the 27 amendments of the U.S. Constitution for being the only one to repeal a prior amendment and to have been ratified by state ratifying conventions.
Supreme court legalizes recreational marijuana, and soon to follow recreational heroin and recreational cocaine.
Americans want more drugs and alcohol.
1
Blaming the drug manufacturers for opioid related deaths is unwarranted IMO. All legal opioids, such as the ones manufactured by Mallinckrodt, are prescription drugs. They have been approved by the FDA. That means that means they are "relatively" safe and effective for certain medical indications and that they come with dosage recommendations.
The same caveats apply to all FDA approved drugs. There are No harmless drugs, including aspirin, a drug that has killed many and as been around for ca.100 years. Opioids can only be legally obtain with a doctor's prescription. After the FDA doctors are primary gatekeepers for prescription drugs. In many, perhaps most cases they are the culprits for overprescribing a dangerous drug to patients. they are major culprits in the opioid crisis. You don't sue automobile manufacturers when drivers kill themselves as well as others by driving substantially over the speed limit. Prescription drugs are not sold directly to patients by manufacturers.
PS There is one drug that is sold directly to the public and in 2017 it was responsible for 1.4X as many deaths as opioids in the US. The drug is ethyl alcohol, sold in a multitude of concoctions and dosages. I'll leave it to the reader to assemble the claims and accolades ethanol garners.
5
Want to really make a difference. As part of the settlement make them become s non-profit. Solves a lot of problems at once
4
Many addicts taking medications do go down a terrible path through access to the drugs that are manufactured. This has been true for all of history.
But there is another side; without the treatments I get for my chronic pain, I could not function.
The price I pay for this is to be handled like a criminal. I must go to a specific treatment facility. I must be drug tested at a greater frequency than most convicted felons on parole.
I am subject to having pharmacies refuse to fill my legitimate prescriptions at their whim should they feel my treatment is inappropriate (this without any copies of my medical records, diagnostic imaging or the like.)
Should I allow ANYONE other than my state approved pain management treatment facility to provide any pain medications, (including a hospital during my recent surgery,) I can be banned from further treatment.
Every physician is scared of having their license to practice medicine revoked due to laws passed for political reasons by people with no medical expertise.
The solution is not so cut and dried as to require shutting down every manufacturer of pills that have legitimate applications.
If there are no companies willing to manufacture, distribute, sell or prescribe or dispense these medications... What then?
14
I have real concerns that people with no other option for pain relief will not have access to needed medication, because of abuses by corporations (the article on the Sackler family still has me reeling that “human beings” can travel so far from decency to their fellow man), and fear of lawsuits by doctors who know their patients and are doing their job.
Addiction changes the way the brain works; it compromises power of choice. Honestly, some would rather stay on drugs to help them cope with problems not related to pain, even as they want not to. As to heroin and Fentanyl, my understanding is these are the drugs people turn to when the doctors/pharmacies cut them off from safer meds because of worries about their wealth, not their patients.
I’m a person who believes corporations are evil, should be abolished; they prevent people whose products are responsible for harming/killing other humans/the planet/etc. from being held personally responsible for their actions while protecting their assets, which are so great that losing a few billion dollars is like most people losing a penny: the Sacklers will never be penniless or jailed for crimes against humanity.
Paying for pills is cheaper than for ongoing treatment, and people have been brainwashed to take a pill rather than endure some discomfort and do daily exercise, etc. to deal with manageable levels of pain. We need, more than ever, to educate ourselves about our bodies; seek help with some knowledge behind us.
2
1. These settlements seem very low compared to the actual losses and damages incurred from the epidemic.
2. Where does this settlement money go? Is it to help addicts or does it go into county coffers?
3. It appears the focus of the various levels of government has turned from the core issue of addiction and is now focused on extracting financial revenge. Who gains and how does this help the affects and their families to get back on their feet?
9
The settlements, even on a county level seem ridiculously low. After what these companies did which was outright drug dealing for the sake of money, they should not be allowed to stay in business, crushed under the legal weight of what they did. Likewise the people within the businesses who were knowingly negligent should face prosecution. Only in America can corporations get away with things like this. Also having Congress on the side of Big Pharma, in some cases passing legislation which disabled in part the DEA should have consequences.
13
What kind of nonsense is this? A drop in the bucket for such massive murder? Germany is still paying neighbors of grandchildren of war victims- yes, it’s that demanding some 70 yrs. on. The Pharma companies should be shuttered and all, absolutely derived opioid sales revenues should be confiscated since its blood money. About 800,000 people have died from opioid addiction. Further, not only every red bloody penny should be confiscated from the Sacklers, but the company should not be allowed to operate anywhere.
5
No wonder Mr Trump is busy with the weather in Alabama.
He is throwing shade on a business catastrophe
6
No one seems to understand what appears to be progress in reaching a viable settlement via an impossible legal process.
Judge Polster took the unprecedented path to settlement rather than the traditional 10 year slog of trial, appeal, accrual of monumental legal fees etc, etc. He was greeted by derision, skepticism, disbelief and scorn.
If he pulls this off, it will be a miracle, bringing immediate ( although never full) relief to victims and Municipalities.
Good luck to him, and to us.
14
@Reality
Relief is nice.
So is punishment, and getting the miscreants off the street, out of society, removed from Wall Street and society.
Any settlement, negotiated with offenders as these are, is nothing more than a cost of doing business. Maybe more expensive, maybe less but, in the end, no biggie. No punishment. No consequence. No harm, no foul.
These people wrecked the country, killed nearly half a million people, got very, very rich, became powerful in the halls of my government, and because business they will be set free to do it again as their victims die and suffer life-long damage with little chance of meaningful support from any source.
Judge Polster may well work a legal miracle, yet another unmitigated disaster and a gold mine for these nefarious corporations. Worse, is those who take seriously Perdue's demand that they be allowed to conduct their vile business as usual on foreign shores.
This is entirely wrong. This is tantamount to negotiating a free pass for El Chapo; no different in any important respect. We should be frightened and ashamed. Judge Polster included.
Petty legalistic thinking and good old boy good form are wretched approaches to the still-unfolding tragedy, and severe damage to the nation, intentionally created and sustained by these crabbed (but very rich) corporate titans, still considered the cream of America's crop in important political and legal venues.
5
Because of these well heeled white collar corporation drug pushers causing the demise of so many people, the punishment should be the demise of these corporations rather than million dollars fines that are loose change to these corporations. Imprison the CEOs and executives and financially bankrupt the corporations causing their demise. Demise for demise.
20
The feds and states are scapegoating opioid manufacturers. Today’s epidemic of OD deaths is mostly from heroin and fentanyl. People aren’t dying from taking too many pills. I remember in 1998 when I was first prescribed OxyContin... it was a godsend for me, the first time my pain was bearable in 3 years. Now my pain remains manageable 20 years later, still due to opioids in general, and OxyContin in particular. But for how much longer? With the fear mongering of opioids and blaming pills for deaths from IV use, legit pain sufferers will be thrown under the bus.
11
@William It would seem to me that while you and many others have real physical pain, the tens of thousands who became addicted and overdosed in past decades did not.
6
Just the two-tiered system of justice in America,
One is harsh, vindictive and punitive.
The other is for corporations and the rich.
24
How much of that money is going to attorneys?
9
The opioid crisis in this country is a white collar crime and, essentially, a pharmaceutical holocaust. And anyone who is in a position to criminally prosecute executives and owners of these companies for deliberately and knowingly strengthening the addictive quality of these medications so vulnerable people were unwittingly addicted to increase their corporate bottom line profitability must do their due diligence start the prosecuting these well heeled drug dealers. No one is above the law and those who participated in the manufacturer of these powerful pain medications are criminally responsible for the death of thousands across this country.
12
I sold two opioid drugs for Mallinckrodt and never witnessed or experienced unethical behavior by the company or prescribers. In fact, one of their opioids was completely unsellable—almost no prescriptions were written in most of the country. I’d like to know more details about where the unethical behavior stemmed from.
11
@Tanya
Well, 60,000 people annually are dying from overdoses on opioids. Perhaps you know enough to do the math properly as your company's responsibilities.
I doubt any company would shell out $30 milliion -- pretty small change for a pharmaceutical company -- unless they thought they'd pay far more once all the facts were aired.
9
@Phil Carson
Druggies and addicts will always find and abuse drugs. Chronic pain sufferers are separate from this mess, but are suffering the most because of it.
12
@Tanya
Are you saying they had no knowledge they were making money on addiction as opposed to pain relief?
5
Settlements are about money not accountability. Imagine monitory settlements with drug pushers instead of criminal trials and prison time. Oh wait, that is what’s happening. Major American prescription drug producers, distributors & members of the medical community engaged in creating an addiction crisis for fun and profit. El Chapo‘s ilk go to prison, opioid drug pushers lose stock valuation and pay out a portion of their profits in settlements. Somethings definitely wrong with this, but nothing a portion of Sackler like wealth can’t make go away.
31
Exactly. And settlements in millions is an insult to the communities who’ve been spending financial resources, that should go elsewhere, on this pharma-created crisis. No consequences for owners and boards, no clawbacks, a rap on the knuckles. It’s disgraceful.
13
Mallinckrodt offering free drugs as payoff does not solve the problem. Every cent - and my opinion is an order of magnitude is missing from this "fine" - should go to recovery programs. A large percentage of millennials are heroin addicts because of the aggressive, greedy practices of the opioid supplier community. The exact number is elusive because stigma discourages people from coming forward and admitting they or their children are addicts. I have confidence addicts can recover with enough investment in recovery. How many 20-somethings do you know personally who are heroin addicts? I know 5. And I also have met myriad parents with kids addicted. Only when we band together and stop hiding this ugly problem, will these kids have a chance to recover. Else, we are facing a lost generation.
14
The penalties seem rather little for a major supplier - getting away with murder
15
Of course Mallinckrodt is pleased with the settlement. $30 million is a pittance. The $15 million settlements by the other two drug companies are a joke. People should be going to jail. Imho.
28
$24 million is what, a few weeks of profits? No criminal prosecutions of executives? Ten or twenty times that amount of taxpayer money spent on care of addicts, criminal prosecutions, orphan children sent into foster care, and on and on.
Corporations are getting away with murder. Literally. Our government is not in charge of this country. The corporations are.
34
@The Poet McTeagle
Thanks for speaking the truth. I know it's obvious, but maybe that's why it needs to be said!
7
Regarding the "$6 million of its drugs": are those valued at the cost to the firm (the production cost, probably close to 0) or using the list price (usually higher than negotiated/actual prices-paid and much higher than production costs)?
Valuing these give-away drugs at list prices would look generous but basically costs the firm nothing.
15