Endo Health Solutions Inc., a Pennsylvania pharmaceutical company that was once one of the largest opioid manufacturers, has been ordered to pay more than $1.5 billion in criminal financial penalties after pleading guilty to falsely marketing the powerful opioid painkiller Opana ER, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. The combined penalties — $1.086 billion in fines and $450 million in criminal forfeiture — make up the second-highest court-ordered penalty against a pharmaceutical company, says the U.S Department of Justice. Endo will actually pay far less than that, a company spokesperson said. Endo Health Solutions (EHSI) and its corporate affiliate, Endo International PLC, filed for bankruptcy in 2022 amid thousands of lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis.
In emerging from bankruptcy, Endo agreed with the federal government to pay $200 million to resolve civil and criminal claims, the spokesperson said. The company could pay an additional $100 million over five years to resolve those matters. The company has also paid $450 million into trusts funding state and local efforts to combat the opioid crisis, covering the company’s criminal forfeiture payment. Endo pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor, acknowledging its role in “introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.” The company admitted that sale representatives falsely claimed that Opana ER, its extended-release brand of the opioid painkiller oxymorphone, was manufactured to deter patients from crushing the pills to snort or inject in order to achieve a quicker and more pleasurable high. Federal officials said they lacked “clinical data to support those claims.” Opana ER made hundreds of millions of dollars for Endo, though concerns had been raised for years about oxymorphone, which is three times more powerful than morphine.
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