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Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company many experts blame for ushering in America's staggering opioid epidemic, plead guilty to criminal charges over its marketing of OxyContin in a massive deal with the Justice Department.
The company agreed to pay millions in fines and to admit criminal liability, but company executives and the Sackler family that owns Purdue Pharma will not admit to any criminal wrongdoing in the agreement, though the settlement doesn't protect them from potential criminal liability in future cases.
Purdue plead guilty to three felony counts for defrauding the federal government by misleading regulators about its efforts to restrict over-prescribing of the drug and to violating anti-kickback laws by paying doctors to write more OxyContin prescriptions. The flood of opioids resulted in massive costs in health care to cope with addictions and deaths.
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