Commentary
NY Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney – Why, Yet, Another Hearing on the Criminals of Purdue Pharma?
It was recently announced that Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, representing Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, NY as Chair of the Oversight Democrats “invited” the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma’s CEO and the Sackler Family to a hearing on their role in fueling the opioid epidemic. Below is the link to Representative Maloney’s invitation.
In an effort to keep Rep. Maloney from re-inventing the wheel, I offer the following information in no order of importance:
Consider how many lives could have been saved if those responsible for the prescription opioid epidemic (Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family) had been charged under RICO, Representative Maloney. Why should they have been charged and what exactly is RICO? Here is a simplified definition for those not familiar.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering and allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes they ordered others to do or assisted them in doing.
So Representative Maloney if you are going to hold hearings in an effort to reinvent the wheel and have no intentions of bringing justice to victims of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, or are looking for further political aspirations, victims need more — much more. They need RICO charges and prison time for the Sackler family and the “brains” behind Purdue Pharma resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and addictions throughout the country.
On August 28, 2001 there was a Hearing before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the Committee on Energy and Commerce House of Representatives – OxyContin: Its Use and Abuse – a very powerful read.
Maybe Congresswoman Maloney will want to touch base with the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on the Committee on Energy and Commerce House of Representatives to determine why they dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.
Then there’s US Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) who while Attorney General in CT was in regular contact with me regarding the criminal activities of Purdue Pharma and filed some actions against the company. Unfortunately once Mr. Blumenthal became a US Senator his interest in pursuing the criminal activities of Purdue Pharma waned.
Maybe Congresswoman Maloney will want to touch base with Senator Blumenthal to determine why he dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.
Then there’s the document dated February 6, 2002 where the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was holding a hearing to examine the risks and benefits of OxyContin. Of particular interest in this file is a letter dated November 20, 1996 to Raymond R. Sackler, MD, President of Purdue Pharma. The reference to this file is “Warning Letter.” In this document is the questioning of Paul D. Goldenheim, MD one of the executives who pleaded guilty in federal court in 2007 to charges of criminally marketing OxyContin. Yet another powerful read.
Maybe Congresswoman Maloney will want to touch base with the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to determine why they dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.
On August 28, 2015 the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Pike Circuit Court – Jack Conway, Attorney General deposed Richard Sackler, MD, general partner of Purdue Pharma. This deposition is quite a revealing read.
Maybe Congresswoman Maloney will want to touch base with the Commonwealth of Kentucky to determine why they dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.
On September 9, 2003 the Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research held a hearing on Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs, Advisory Committee. The purpose of the hearing was to advise the FDA on risk management programs for opioid analgesics.
Maybe Congresswoman Maloney will want to touch base with the Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration to determine why they dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.
Then there is the US Senate Finance Committee investigation launched in 2012 exposing Purdue Pharma and those involved in the opioid epidemic killing and addicting in the hundreds of thousands. The report was finalized and ready to be released when US Senator Orrin Hatch (UT) now retired — sealed the report and it never saw the light of day.
Maybe Congresswoman Maloney will want to touch base with the US Senate Finance Committee to determine why they dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family — and why Hatch sealed the report.
My Testimony – Marianne Skolek (Perez) before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Evaluating the Propriety and Adequacy of the OxyContin Criminal Settlement
July 31, 2007
My name is Marianne Skolek. I had a beautiful 29 year old daughter named Jill. She had the misfortune of being prescribed OxyContin in January 2002 and was killed on April 29, 2002.
Why did a $9 billion privately held pharmaceutical corporation take the life of my precious daughter? My work against Purdue Pharma for the past 5 years initially focused on J. David Haddox, dentist turned psychiatrist and Senior Medical Director of Purdue Pharma. I also focused on Robin Hogen, former Public Relations spokesman for Purdue Pharma.
In 1996, the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Pain Society issued a set of guidelines for the use of opiates in the treatment of chronic pain. These guidelines are referred to as a “consensus statement.” The statement leaning toward a more liberal use of opiates was adopted just as the marketing push for OxyContin began. This consensus statement was produced by a task force, which was headed by J. David Haddox, former president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, who was senior medical advisor for Purdue Pharma – the maker of OxyContin. Haddox was quoted as saying that “the point was to gather consensus. If you are going to do this, this is how it should be done.” There was question as to whether it was ethical for Haddox to be associated with a pharmaceutical manufacturer to guide the formation of a document that would play a key role in promoting the use of products made by the company – Purdue Pharma.
When OxyContin was introduced on the market, it was intended for the treatment of cancer patients and they were losing the patent on MS Contin. At one point, in the greed and sheer evil of Purdue Pharma, they intended to market OxyContin to OB/GYN patients. I flooded the country with emails and faxes to Attorney Generals and the media reporting that we had enough devastation in the country without addicting infants to OxyContin. This marketing ploy was terminated by Purdue Pharma.
Pain patients from various pain societies will speak of the merits of OxyContin and their quality of life being restored because of the drug. These pain societies throughout the country – are funded by Purdue Pharma. Let the pain patients not a part of any funded pain society of Purdue Pharma speak about the quality of life they have after becoming addicted to OxyContin – and when their physicians refuse to renew prescriptions for the drug – and they go on the street to buy the drug because they can’t kick the habit of this less addictive drug. Ask the FDA and the DEA why OxyContin is in such plentiful supply on the streets all over the country.
Jill and thousands of victims of an out of control, greedy pharmaceutical company headed by three convicted criminals marketed OxyContin as less likely to be addictive and abused. There are assertions that the only victims in the criminal activities of Purdue Pharma were the physicians who were misled by Purdue Pharma’s sales representatives. The physicians, who were used as pawns by Purdue Pharma, were not ingesting a powerful narcotic that was being marketed as less likely to be addictive or abused – the patients were ingesting OxyContin and were becoming addicted and dying. If patients aren’t victims of Purdue Pharma’s criminal activities, tell me what they should be called.
The addictions and loss of lives because of OxyContin continue to impact every state in the country every single day. The far reaching consequences of the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma did not end in 2001 or 2002 as they would like it to be believed – no one can turn the clock back. This has been allowed to become a national crisis because there was no conscience in the marketing of OxyContin – there was only greed.
We all hear on the news every day about individuals who work for government agencies or private industry who embezzle funds. Purdue Pharma has been found criminally responsible for marketing OxyContin which resulted in death and addiction. Is it justice to have these convicted criminals – these monsters – fined an amount of money that is very well afforded by them, or will the Senate send a message that because of the magnitude of the crime committed, they deserve to be further investigated by the Senate?
Anything that is imposed against these convicted criminals will not give us back Jill, but I will guarantee that Purdue Pharma will never forget the name Jill Skolek. When I began my work at exposing these three convicted criminals and Haddox and Hogen, I told Hogen that you messed with the wrong mother – and they did because my work is not over.
I want to know why the FDA allowed OxyContin to cause such destruction to the lives of scores of innocent victims. I want to know why 12 warning letters were sent by the FDA to Purdue Pharma about their marketing of OxyContin and to this day, they are not required to put “highly addictive” or “addictive” on the label of the drug. I want to know why the FDA deleted without reading so many of my emails about the marketing of OxyContin until this last month. I want to know why Curtis Wright while employed by the FDA played an intricate part in the approval of OxyContin and then was hired by Purdue Pharma. I want to know why Attorney General Blumenthal of Connecticut’s Citizen Petition which requests strengthened warnings for OxyContin as a result of information they uncovered in their investigation against Purdue Pharma has been sitting at the FDA – without any action – since January 2004. I want to know how Rudy Giuliani could be the “big star” hired by Purdue Pharma to play down the abuse and diversion of OxyContin and also get paid by the DEA for work performed for them. I want to know why the Sackler family has not been held accountable for their involvement with Purdue Pharma and the mass marketing of OxyContin.
Eventually, Purdue Pharma will introduce another blockbuster drug similar to OxyContin and as they did with another devastating drug called Palladone. Palladone was removed from the market after a couple of months. I like to think that my faxes and emails all over the country played an intricate part in having it removed. My advice to Purdue Pharma is when you are ready to introduce another drug such as OxyContin or Palladone, look behind you, because I will be right there.
I will be working at having Howard Udell disbarred for his criminal activities and Paul Goldenheim’s medical license revoked for what amounts to white-collar drug trafficking. I will be actively working at Friedman, Udell and Goldenheim never being able to work in the pharmaceutical industry again because they are convicted criminals who criminally marketed OxyContin. I will accomplish this – hopefully with the help of Attorney General Blumenthal — do not doubt me at not being successful at achieving this.
Her name was Jill Carol Skolek. She did not deserve to be prescribed OxyContin and die because of the criminal activities of individuals of Purdue Pharma. Please give my family justice and investigate the criminal activity of Purdue Pharma.
Thank you Senators for giving me the opportunity to speak for thousands of victims of an out-of-control pharmaceutical corporation.
The above was my testimony just weeks after Purdue Pharma and their three CEO’s pleaded guilty in federal court to the criminal marketing of OxyContin. That was in the year 2007 when the company and the Sackler Family was benefiting financially to the tune of approximately $9 billion. Also deaths and addictions were in the tens of thousands as a result of OxyContin. Senator Leahy looked at me after I delivered my testimony and informed me there would be no investigation into the criminal activities of Purdue Pharma and their lies in marketing OxyContin. They were only taking testimony.
Maybe Representative Maloney will want to touch base with Senator Leahy to determine why the US Senate Judiciary Committee dropped the ball in pursuing criminal action against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family.
And maybe just maybe Representative Maloney is not going to reinvent the wheel and politick because right about now hundreds of thousands of victims of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family want prison time — not more hearings.
Marianne Perez
Investigative Reporter exposing the manufactured opioid epidemic, FDA and Purdue Pharma
Phillip McCallum, President of Alabama Bar Association video re: my work at exposing Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family
