Purdue Pharma

When bestselling author JD Vance founded “Our Ohio Renewal” a day after the 2016 presidential election, he promoted the charity as a vehicle for helping solve the scourge of opioid addiction he’d lamented in his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

The highly contentious Purdue Pharma settlement announced Sept. 1, 2021, comes at a pivotal time for the U.S. overdose crisis: 2020 was the worst year on record, with over 93,000 Americans losing their lives to fatal drug overdose.

March 8 (Reuters) - Members of the Sackler family that own Purdue Pharma struck a new settlement last week with a group of eight states and the District of Columbia to resolve widespread litigation accusing the OxyContin maker of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic.

A judge said he is extending legal protections for members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma by another three weeks to buy time to work out a new settlement to thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis.

Over the next two weeks, some of the biggest U.S. corporations accused of "turbocharging" the opioid epidemic could finalize payouts to victims and governments worth roughly $32 billion.

Since prescription opioids were first introduced for pain treatment in the 1990s, the number of drug overdose deaths has quadrupled, and more than a half million Americans have died from an overdose involving an opioid.

Hulu's Dopesick depicts the start of the opioid addiction crisis in the U.S. and some of the people it has affected. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans and NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann spoke with Dopesick author Beth Macy and Dopesick series creator/showrunner Danny Strong to discuss the show and just how real it is.

When journalist Sam Quinones went looking for a buyer for the book that became “Dreamland” a decade ago, there was little interest.