Overview

Michael Friedman served as president and chief executive of Purdue Pharma during the period when OxyContin was aggressively marketed with false claims about its addiction risk. As the company's senior operational executive, Friedman was responsible for executing the marketing strategy directed by the Sackler family that portrayed OxyContin as less addictive than competing opioids using the fabricated "less than one percent" addiction claim. In October 2006, Kirk Ogrosky, Deputy Chief of the DOJ Fraud Division, wrote an internal memorandum recommending that Friedman be charged with felonies including wire fraud and money laundering based on evidence that Purdue executives had committed multiple federal crimes to boost OxyContin sales. Instead of pursuing felony charges, the DOJ negotiated a plea agreement. On May 10, 2007, Friedman pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of misbranding OxyContin "with the intent to defraud or mislead." He was sentenced to 400 hours of community service in drug treatment programs and paid a personal fine as part of a combined $34.5 million penalty shared with co-defendants Howard Udell (general counsel) and Paul Goldenheim (chief medical officer). Friedman received no prison time. The 2007 plea was widely criticized as inadequate given the scale of harm caused by Purdue's marketing, by that time, hundreds of thousands of Americans were addicted to OxyContin and overdose deaths were climbing rapidly. Purdue as a corporation paid $634.5 million. The Ogrosky memo, which was not made public until years later, demonstrated that prosecutors believed the evidence supported far more serious charges than what was ultimately pursued.

Key Affiliations

Controversies & Concerns

Related Investigations (2)

Known Associates & Connections

Sources & Documentation

3 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports