Purdue Pharma should be charged just like any other drug cartel responsible for the deaths of addicts. 'Opiophobia' my ass. Is it 'tobbacophobic' to be afraid of lung cancer? Is it ethanophobia to know that your family struggles with alcohol addiction? This makes me sick to my stomach.
Hey, Vioxx killed half a million people. That cost Merck about five billion dollars. At 200,000 deaths, Purdue owes about $2b. Purdue makes about $3b a year. They've made about $35b so far. The Sacklers could write a personal check and still have $12b.
They've already paid out half a billion, so Jan 1st - March 12th.
...$10,000 per death? If I'm a financial analyst in that company...
So, the question is should we expect companies to be ethical and moral or should regulations force them to do so? Because clearly neither are happening in this case.
Have you seen The Corporation? They make the point that a company must necessarily be a sociopathic apex predator in order to maximize shareholder value and only through adjusting its ecosystem to internalize the externalities will we ever be more than chum in a bucket.