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Lawyers Want Release of Former OxyContin Leader's Testimony

Creative Commons

Lawyers for the Boston Globe have asked a Kentucky appeals court to release the secret testimony from a member of the family that controls one of the country's largest manufacturers of prescription painkillers.

The Kentucky Attorney General's office sued Purdue Pharma in 2007 for its deceptive marketing of OxyContin, an addictive prescription painkiller. The case was settled in 2015 for $24 million. But before it settled, former company president Richard Sackler gave an on-the-record deposition that is part of the court file. Sackler is a member of the family that controls the company.

The court sealed the records as part of the settlement. But the Boston Globe, through its subsidiary Statnews.com, asked the court to unseal the records. A state judge agreed to do that last year, but Purdue Pharma appealed.

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