Purdue Pharma L.P. — Ethics Grade F

Purdue Pharma L.P. receives an overall ethics grade of F (5/100) on CancelCo's corporate accountability database. Sector: Healthcare. Market cap: Small Cap.

Category scores

• labor: 40
• privacy: 60
• consumer: 0
• environment: 50
• humanRights: 5

Documented incidents (3)

• OxyContin Marketing Deception (high, 2019) — Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed OxyContin as non-addictive despite internal knowledge of its high abuse potential. This misleading promotion is widely cited as the primary catalyst for the US opioid epidemic.
• Sackler Liability Shield (high, 2021) — The company sought bankruptcy protection in a way that would grant the Sackler family (owners) total immunity from future opioid-related lawsuits, despite the family withdrawing billions from the company before filing.
• Illegal Doctor Kickbacks (high, 2020) — Purdue paid kickbacks to doctors to induce them to write more prescriptions for OxyContin and used an electronic health record software system to nudge physicians toward its drugs.

Documented good deeds

• Overdose Reversal Drug Development — Proceeds from the company's dissolution are mandated to fund the production and distribution of low-cost naloxone to combat overdoses.

Ethical alternatives

• Takeda Pharmaceutical — Stronger focus on rare diseases and more transparent ethical marketing practices.