Purdue guilty plea 'cuts head off' opioid serpent

Purdue Pharma says its guilty plea over its role in the opioid crisis is "an essential step to preserve billions of dollars" for the settlement it is pursuing in bankruptcy court.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based maker of OxyContin also said in a statement Tuesday after a federal hearing in New Jersey that the plea will "advance our goal of providing financial resources and lifesaving medicines to address the opioid crisis."

"This is now the company being charged with a crime and pleading to the crime, and that affects its ability to do business, to get contracts – just to to run as a pharmaceutical company in the future," says Hunter Shkolnik (SHH-kol-NICK), a class action attorney unaffiliated with the guilty plea.

"A company doesn't go into jail, but it's going to cost them money and it's going to cost them their ability to run their business the way they have over the years," Shkolnik added.

The plea is part of a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department that also resolves civil claims.

Advocates are upset the guilty plea does not apply to individual executives or members of the Sackler family that owns Purdue.

"I think a lot of a lot of folks would like to have seen a Sackler standing up there raising their hands, saying, 'I plead guilty.' But that didn't happen," Shkolnik said.

Shkolnik called Purdue Pharma a "bad company" and said the Sackler family ran it "in a bad way."

"They'll never step foot back in Purdue. Purdue will continue operating, albeit at a smaller size than it was, and it will sell the drug that many people need, pain patients need in a legal and proper way," he told The Associated Press.

Shkolnik said the guilty plea and monetary settlements won't bring back the people who died of an opioid overdose, but it's a step in the right direction.

"No one's going to bring back the family, the family members they lost. No one is going to cure an opioid addict because of a settlement. But what's important here is we really cut the head off of this serpent. It is never going to be able to do this again."