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The country's opioid epidemic claims the lives of more than 130 people each day, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Of those, about 46 each day are attributed to prescription drug overdoses, including OxyContin, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Purdue Pharma started producing OxyContin, generic name oxycodone, in 1995. The drug became a billion-dollar blockbuster for the company.

The Sackler family is listed as the 19th-richest in the world by Forbes at an estimated $13 billion.

However, the company is now facing 1,600 lawsuits from people who abused the medication and it is trying to settle some $10 billion in claims, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and eight members of the Sackler family filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey in January, she alleges the Sackler family “made the choices that caused much of the opioid epidemic.\"

The company has called the allegations \"misleading.\"

ABC News' Josh Hoyos and Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

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