Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on state Attorneys General urging changes to expected Purdue Pharma settlement:

“Attorney General Bill Barr should take this opportunity to listen. Unlike Trump’s Justice Department, these state Attorneys General have witnessed first-hand the destruction caused by Purdue Pharma in their communities across this country. The Sackler family built a multi-million dollar business out of pushing addictive painkillers to Americans, reaping billions in profits while opioid addictions and overdoses killed hundreds of thousands of people and devastated millions of families from coast to coast. Purdue Pharma is about as far from a ‘public benefit company’ as you can get. Yet the Trump administration will continue letting the corporation sell OxyContin on behalf of state and local governments, putting more lives and families at risk rather than holding Purdue accountable for the tremendous harm they have inflicted on countless communities.

If Bill Barr and the Trump administration are serious about justice for families and communities, they would take action to stop opioid manufacturers from profiting from the pain and harm they cause and instead protect the public from the drug corporations’ relentless marketing and profiteering. They would do their jobs as elected officials and safeguard the public against future abuses rather than helping the Sackler family make more money.”