Frequently Asked Questions

Is this archive the same as the DOJ/Purdue Pharma public document repository? 

The Twelfth Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization of Purdue Pharma L.P. and its Affiliated Debtors (PDF) filed on September 2, 2021 states in Article V 5.12: Public Document Repository:

"(a) Summary. The document disclosure program provided in this Plan will lead to the public disclosure of the most significant documents about Purdue, the Sackler family and the opioid crisis, including video depositions and millions of documents that Purdue produced in investigations and litigation over the past two decades. In addition, it will lead to the public disclosure of millions of documents not previously available to the public, including documents not previously produced in any investigation or litigation and certain privileged documents from the years when Purdue developed and promoted OxyContin, as identified below. The document disclosure program and Public Document Repository will be conducted in a way to maximize public confidence and public access and will set a new standard for transparency."

The Plan further states in Article V 5.12 (m):

"(m) Host Institution. The host institution(s) shall be selected by the Governmental Consent Parties, the Creditors’ Committee and the Newly Consenting States (the “Host Institution”). The Host Institution will be responsible for hosting and maintaining the Public Document Repository in perpetuity, including but not limited to: maintaining control and security over documents in the Public Document Repository; providing an accessible user interface; and providing clear and transparent explanations of its procedures to the public."

  A Host Institution has not yet been selected. However, UCSF and JHU are eager to contribute their expertise in public health, digital archives, and information technology to enable free public access to future document sets which may be released in the Purdue settlement or in other opioid litigation.

How much will the archive cost and how will it be funded? 

The cost of the archive greatly depends upon the volume of documents to be included (as yet unknown). The Truth Tobacco Industry Documents Library at UCSF was established in 2001 with a $15 million gift from the American Legacy Foundation (now Truth Initiative) using funds from the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. It initially included 40 million pages, and now contains more than 93 million pages. The public [opioids] archive was created and funded in part through settlements of public interest lawsuits by states. In addition, both universities are pursuing various options, including grants and philanthropic gifts.

Can I use documents or media clips in my project? 

You can use these materials for a non-commercial project if it falls under ‘Fair Use.’ Please see Copyright and Fair Use for more information.

Can I download a large batch of PDF documents all at once? 

Please contact us at industrydocuments@ucsf.edu if you are interested in large downloads of PDFs. For batch downloads of records/metadata, you can query our Solr index directly using an API. We also provide data sets containing metadata and OCR text for our entire corpus. Please see Industry Documents Library API and Data Set for more information and documentation.

Do you make your entire database of documents available? Is there an API? 

You can query our Solr index directly using an API. We also provide data sets containing metadata and OCR text for our entire corpus. Please see Industry Documents Library API and Data Set for more information and documentation.