You’re most likely asking about Dr. Curtis Wright from the Painkiller / Purdue Pharma story. He left the FDA in 1997 and later worked for Purdue; public writeups say he was deposed in opioid-related litigation, but he was never officially charged with a serious crime, and his later whereabouts are not clearly documented in the sources I found.

Quick scoop

  • He was an FDA doctor involved in OxyContin’s approval story.
  • He later joined the private pharmaceutical side, including Purdue-related work.
  • He became part of the broader opioid-crisis litigation history.
  • Public sources say he was last known to be working as a consultant, with no clear public update on his current location or status.

What’s known

The clearest public reporting says Curtis Wright:

  • was connected to the FDA approval of OxyContin,
  • later worked with Purdue Pharma,
  • gave testimony/depositions in legal cases,
  • and by 2018 was no longer employed by Purdue, with his later life kept largely out of the public record.

If you meant someone else

There are other people named Curtis Wright, including a Canadian-born U.S. permanent resident who was in ICE custody in a separate 2026 news story. If you want, I can help narrow it down to the exact Curtis Wright you mean.