UPDATED: April 1, 2019

Recently, it has surfaced that the well-known Sackler family, who are also the founders of Purdue Pharma, are currently under investigation for their company’s role with the current opioid epidemic in America. Purdue and the Sacklers are now facing more than 1,600 lawsuits against them.

However, it has been reported on Monday that not only are the lawsuits attempting to prove the Sacklers are guilty of being heavily involved in marketing opioids to patients but also were expecting to profit from selling treatments to patients that became addicted to the painkillers manufactured by their company.

A New York complaint emphasizes on one of the documents of Project Tango (the details of the marketing plot), which is portrayed as a blue funnel with a larger end of which was labeled “pain treatment,” the narrow end labeled “opioid addiction treatment.” The document mentioned that “pain treatment and addiction are naturally linked,” suggesting that profits from one could potentially lead to earnings from the other.

Purdue also allegedly pursued with a plan to sell naloxone, which is known as an overdose-reversing drug.

In 2016, three members of the Sackler family “discussed buying a company that used implantable drug pumps to treat opioid addiction.” Since then, Purdue has continued to develop products for opioid treatment. The Sacklers have continued to deny all the allegations against them.