Buprenorphine, sold under the brand name Subutex among others, is an opioid used to treat opioid use disorder, acute pain, and chronic pain. It can be used under the tongue (sublingual), in the cheek (buccal), by injection, as a skin patch (transdermal), or as an implant. For opioid use disorder, the patient must have moderate opioid withdrawal symptoms before buprenorphine can be administered under direct observation of a health-care provider.
Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merger of British company Reckitt & Colman plc and Dutch company Benckiser N.V.
Endo International plc is an American Irish-domiciled generics and specialty branded pharmaceutical company that generated over 93% of its 2017 sales from the U.S. healthcare system. While Endo's management, operations, and customers are almost exclusively U.S.–based, in 2013 Endo executed a corporate tax inversion to Ireland to avoid U.S. corporate taxes on their U.S. drug sales, and to avail of Ireland's corporate tax system.
Purdue Pharma L.P., formerly the Purdue Frederick Company (1892–2019), was an American privately held pharmaceutical company founded by John Purdue Gray. It was sold to Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler in 1952, and then owned principally by the Sackler family and their descendants.
Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals is an American-Irish domiciled manufacturer of specialty pharmaceuticals, generic drugs and imaging agents. In 2017, it generated 90% of its sales from the U.S. healthcare system. While Mallinckrodt is headquartered in Ireland for tax purposes, its operational headquarters are in the U.S. Mallinckrodt's 2013 tax inversion to Ireland drew controversy when it was shown Acthar was Medicaid's most expensive drug.
Mead Johnson & Company, LLC is an American company that is a leading manufacturer of infant formula, both domestically and globally, with its flagship product Enfamil. It operates as an independent subsidiary of Reckitt.
ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc, was a US-based pharmaceutical company that specialized in ophthalmic pharmaceutical products and discovers, develops, and markets therapies for inflammation, ocular pain, glaucoma, allergy, and dry eye. ISTA was acquired by Bausch & Lomb, an eye care company, on March 26, 2012. Under the deal, Bausch & Lomb have agreed to pay $9.10 per share for ISTA, bringing the total value of the acquisition to $500 million. In 2012, Valeant Pharmaceuticals withdrew its $360 million offer.
Nicandro Durante is a Brazilian businessman who served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of British American Tobacco (BAT), the world's largest tobacco company by sales, from 2011 to 2019. In September 2022 he was appointed as temporary CEO of Reckitt Benckiser.
Rakesh Kapoor is an Indian businessman. He was, until September 2019, chief executive (CEO) of Reckitt plc, a UK FTSE-listed multinational consumer goods company, a major producer of health, hygiene and home products.
AbbVie Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois. It is ranked sixth on the list of largest biomedical companies by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 74. The company's primary product is Humira (adalimumab), administered via injection. It is approved to treat autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, plaque psoriasis, and ulcerative colitis.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc is a global biopharmaceutical company with a focus on oncology and neuroscience. It was founded in 2003 in California, United States. One of the company's considerable products is the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug Xyrem, the sodium salt of the naturally occurring neurotransmitter γ-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB). In 2017, net product sales of Xyrem were $1.187 billion, which represented 74% of the company's total net product sales. In 2019, Jazz was granted FDA-approval to market Sunosi with indications for treating excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in narcolepsy as well as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). In 2022, it was announced that Axsome Therapeutics would be acquiring Sunosi from Jazz Pharmaceuticals.
Buprenorphine/naloxone, sold under the brand name Suboxone among others, is a fixed-dose combination medication that includes buprenorphine and naloxone. It is used to treat opioid use disorder, and reduces the mortality of opioid use disorder by 50%. It relieves cravings to use and withdrawal symptoms. Buprenorphine/naloxone is available for use in two different forms, under the tongue or in the cheek.
Founded in 1990, Insys Therapeutics was an American specialty pharmaceutical company based in Chandler, Arizona. Its main product was Subsys, a sublingual liquid form of the drug fentanyl. Fentanyl is an extremely fast-acting and powerful opioid used to relieve peaks of pain in cancer patients.
Nurofen is a brand name range of pain-relief medication containing ibuprofen made by the British multinational Reckitt. Introduced in 1983, the Nurofen brand was acquired following Reckitt Benckiser's acquisition of Boots healthcare international in 2005 for £1.93 billion, which included Nurofen, Strepsils, and Clearasil. The brand is primarily marketed and sold in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In 2016 it was the biggest selling branded over-the-counter medication sold in Great Britain, with sales of £116.8 million.
Allergan plc is an American, Irish-domiciled pharmaceutical company that acquires, develops, manufactures and markets brand name drugs and medical devices in the areas of medical aesthetics, eye care, central nervous system, and gastroenterology. The company is the maker of Botox.
There is an ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States, originating out of both medical prescriptions and illegal sources. The epidemic began in the United States in the late 1990s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when opioids were increasingly prescribed for pain management, resulting in a rise in overall opioid use throughout subsequent years.
Massachusetts v. Purdue is a lawsuit filed on August 14, 2018, suing the Stamford, Connecticut-based company Purdue Pharma LP, which created and manufactures OxyContin, "one of the most widely used and prescribed opioid drugs on the market", and Purdue's owners, the Sacklers accusing them of "widespread fraud and deception in the marketing of opioids, and contributing to the opioid crisis, the nationwide epidemic that has killed thousands." Purdue denied the allegations.
The timeline of the opioid epidemic includes selected events related to the origins of Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, the development and marketing of oxycodone, selected FDA activities related to the abuse and misuse of opioids, the recognition of the opioid epidemic, the social impact of the crisis, lawsuits against Purdue and the Sackler family.
$1,093 million (2022) [1] 
