{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-joins-baldwin-colleagues-call-on-purdue-pharma-to-cancel-13-million-bonus-for-ceo", "Warren Joins Baldwin, Colleagues Call on Purdue Pharma to Cancel $1.3 Million Bonus for CEO", "2019-12-17", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 17, 2019\n\t\t\t Warren Joins Baldwin, Colleagues Call on Purdue Pharma to Cancel $1.3 Million Bonus for CEO \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t By maintaining the aggressive incentive plan for Mr. Landau, the Board is showing that it does not recognize the role the incentive program played in accelerating the opioid crisis into a national tragedy\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Text of the Letter (PDF) Washington, D.C.  United States Senator Elizabeth\r\nWarren (D-Mass.) joined Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and 9 of their Senate\r\ncolleagues in sending a letter to Purdue Pharma's Board of Directors, calling\r\non them to cancel the reported $1.3 million bonus they are planning to give to\r\nPurdue Pharma CEO Craig Landau. Attorneys General from 24 states, including Massachusetts,\r\nhave argued that Landau should not collect a bonus, and on Thursday, a\r\nbankruptcy judge is expected to issue a decision on whether the CEO can collect\r\nit. From\r\nthe letter, the senators write,We\r\nwrite to you today with concerns about the $1.3 million incentive bonus payment\r\nyou have proposed to make to Purdue chief executive officer Craig Landau while\r\nyour company is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Mr. Landau is a named defendant in\r\nmultiple lawsuits, which allege he personally designed Purdue's intentionally\r\ndeceptive opioid marketing campaign. Further, the payment is based on\r\naggressive performance incentives similar to those used to encourage opioid\r\nsales. As such, we ask that you cancel the incentive payment to Mr. Landau and reevaluate\r\nyour incentive payment plan to ensure your company puts patient safety ahead of\r\nprofits. Purdue's\r\nopioid marketing campaignaccelerated an opioid epidemicthat has claimed an estimated\r\n400,000 lives. The campaign generated$35 billion in revenuefor Purdue and likely\r\nsignificant incentive bonus compensation for Mr. Landau for achieving ambitious\r\nopioid sales targets. The senators are concerned that Purdue is using profits\r\nfrom selling more prescription opioids to reward high-level employees with\r\nmassive bonuses, rather than helping states ravished by the opioid crisis that\r\nthe company made worse. The senators\r\ncontinue,By\r\nmaintaining the aggressive incentive plan for Mr. Landau, the Board is showing\r\nthat it does not recognize the role the incentive program played in accelerating\r\nthe opioid crisis into a national tragedy. While the filings indicate that\r\nPurdue's sales incentive plan will not pay bonuses for opioid sales, it is not\r\nclear that the operating profit incentive will exclude opioid sales from its\r\ncalculation. The\r\ncompany's recently-submitted compensation proposal would incentivize Mr. Landau\r\nto meet aggressive sales targets, and could result in the unwarranted\r\nprescription and irresponsible distribution of opioids and other addictive\r\ndrugs. While the proposal indicates that Purdue's sales incentive plan will not\r\npay bonuses for opioid sales, it is not clear that the operating profit\r\nincentive will exclude opioid sales from its calculation. In their letter, the\r\nsenators highlight that there is no indication the very compensation policies\r\nthat encouraged its employees to allegedly deceive doctors and patients to sell\r\nopioids have been removed from the current compensation plan to sell other\r\ndrugs. They\r\nconclude,In\r\nclosing, we again urge you to cancel your proposed incentive bonus payment to\r\nMr. Landau, and reevaluate your entire incentive pay program to ensure that\r\nyour company puts patient safety ahead of profits. Massachusetts\r\nAttorney General Maura Healey provided a statement of support in response to\r\nthe December 17, 2019 letter to Purdue's board: The Senators are right. Our\r\nlawsuit revealed that the CEO of Purdue led the company's deceptive campaign to\r\nget more patients on opioids at higher doses, even when he knew patients were\r\ndying. Paying Craig Landau a $1.3 million bonus is the opposite of\r\naccountability. Senator\r\nWarren believes that the opioid crisis facing our country must be addressed\r\ncomprehensively, at all levels of government and society. Senator Warren partnered with the late\r\nCongressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), then-Chairman of the House Committee on\r\nOversight and Reform, in introducing the most comprehensive solution yet to\r\nconfront the nation's opioid crisis, Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, to provide the resources needed to begin\r\ntreating the opioid crisis like the critical public health emergency it is. The\r\nCARE Act provides $100 billion in federal funding over ten years. Senator Warren and the late Representative\r\nCummings reintroduced this legislation with over 95 cosponsors and endorsements from\r\nover 200 organizations.She worked\r\nto secure additional funding to address the opioid crisis, including $100 million in new funding in FY2017, and $6 billion in new funding to address both mental health and the opioid\r\ncrisis between FY2018 and FY2019.Senator\r\nWarren led on several bipartisan proposals to combat the opioid epidemic\r\nthat were signed into law as part of the bipartisan SUPPORT Act in October\r\n2018.Senator Warren introduced the\r\nbipartisan Reducing Unused Medications Act with Senator Shelley Moore Capito\r\n(R-W.V.) which would allow for the partial filling of Schedule II opioid\r\nprescriptions to limit the number of unused painkillers in circulation. This\r\nbill was included in the Comprehensive Addiction and\r\nRecovery Act (CARA), which was signed into law in July 2016. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warren-joins-baldwin-colleagues-call-on-purdue-pharma-to-cancel-13-million-bonus-for-ceo"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0170240420848131, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}