Members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the company itself have agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion in a new settlement for lawsuits over the consequences harmful effects of this powerful prescription painkiller, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.
The deal, reached by Purdue Pharma, members of the Sackler family who own the company and attorneys representing state and local governments as well as thousands of victims of the opioid crisis, represents an increase of more than $1 billion dollars over one year. previous settlement agreement this was rejected last year by the US Supreme Court.
The Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion, Purdue to pay $900 million, for a total of $7.4 billion.
It’s one of the largest settlements reached in recent years in a series of lawsuits filed by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for a deadly outbreak. Besides the Purdue deal, others worth about $50 billion have been announced — and most of the money must be used. to stem the crisis.
The agreement still needs to be approved by the court and some details still need to be worked out. An arm of the federal Justice Department opposed the previous regulation, even after all states signed on, and took the battle to the U.S. Supreme Court. But under President Donald Trump, the federal government is unlikely to oppose the new deal.
“We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will provide billions of dollars to compensate victims, alleviate the opioid crisis, and provide overdose relief treatments and medications that will save lives,” said Purdue, based in Stamford, Conn., in a statement. .
Kara Trainor, a Michigan woman in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after receiving a prescription for OxyContin to treat a back injury 23 years ago, welcomed the agreement.
“Everything in my life is shaped by a business that puts profits over human lives,” she said.
The attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia joins Attorney General James in seeking settlement.
Under the new proposal, members of the Sackler family would contribute up to $6.5 billion over 15 years and give up ownership of Purdue, which would become a new entity with its board of directors appointed by the states and others who took the company to court. Purdue must pay $900 million. Some of the money will also go to victims of the opioid crisis or their survivors.
The family’s contribution will be higher than the $6 billion agreed to in the previous version. The Supreme Court blocked the deal last year because it shielded members of the wealthy family from civil lawsuits over OxyContin — even though the family members themselves were not bankrupt. The new agreement protects family members from lawsuits only from entities that agree to the settlement.
Mediations have taken place to try to reach a new agreement since the court ruling was handed down. If one is not achieved, it could open the floodgates to trials against members of the Sackler family.
A court order blocking lawsuits against members of the Sackler family is set to expire Friday, but the parties are asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to keep the measure in place until February to iron out the final details. The deadline has already been extended several times.
Some governments, including the states of Maryland and Washington, have regularly opposed these extensions.
The new regulation could end a chapter in a long legal saga over the balance sheet of a opioid crisis According to some experts, it began after the hit painkiller OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the United States. The deadliest period has occurred since 2020, when illicit fentanyl has been identified as a factor in more than 70,000 deaths per year.
Members of the Sackler family were interpreted as villains and had their names removed from art galleries and universities all over the world due to their role in a private company. They continued to deny allegations of wrongdoing.
Collectively, the family members are estimated to be worth billions more than they would have contributed to the settlement, but much of the wealth is in offshore accounts and may be impossible to access through lawsuits .
Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis. Among the allegations, the company allegedly targeted doctors by letting them know that the risk of addiction to the powerful painkillers was low.
In a filing in October 2024, a branch of the family pledged to defend itself in any cases allowed to move forward, asserting that the legal theory at the heart of the lawsuits — that members of the Purdue family and Sackler created a “public nuisance” – “is totally devoid of merit”.
