Sacklers deny responsibility for opioid crisis and claim lawyers ‘invented false narrative’

A branch of the family launches website and claims they are victims of smear campaign by lawyers seeking to make profit

A branch of the Sackler family has launched a website denying responsibility for the US opioid epidemic even after agreeing to pay billions of dollars to settle lawsuits over the crisis.

The website, called Judge for Yourselves, claims that the family and the company it owns, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, are victims of a smear campaign by lawyers seeking to profit from a strategically invented false narrative" that the firm's high-strength prescription painkiller, OxyContin, drove an epidemic that has ultimately claimed more than 500,000 lives over the past two decades.