Purdue Pharma, Sacklers to pay $7.4 billion in new opioid settlement | News about drugs
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and family members who own the company have agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion in a new settlement to end lawsuits over the powerful prescription drug’s toll, New York Attorney General Letitia James says.
The deal announced Thursday represents an increase of more than $1 billion a previous settlement that was rejected Last year the United States Supreme Court. The settlement was negotiated by Purdue Pharma, members of the Sackler family who own the company, and attorneys representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis.
The Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and Purdue $900 million.
It is among the largest settlements reached in recent years in a series of lawsuits by local, state and Indian tribal governments and other plaintiffs seeking to hold opioid companies responsible for the deadly addiction epidemic. In addition to the Purdue deal, others worth about $50 billion have been announced – and much of the money must be used to stop the crisis.
The contract still needs court approval, and some details have yet to be announced. An arm of the US Justice Department opposed the previous settlement, even after every state came on board, and took the battle to the Supreme Court. But under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal.
“We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will deliver billions of dollars to compensate victims, reduce the opioid crisis, and deliver life-saving treatment and overdose rescue drugs,” the Stamford, Connecticut-based company said in a statement.
Kara Trainor, a Michigan woman in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after getting a prescription for Oxycontin 23 years ago to deal with a back injury. She praised the agreement.
“Everything in my life is shaped by a company that made a profit over human life,” she said.
James in principle in securing the settlement are attorneys general in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virminia and West Virginia.
Future lawsuits
Under the new proposal, Sackler family members 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 appointed by states and others who have sued the company. Purdue has to pay 900 million dollars. Part of the money also goes to victims of the opioid crisis or their survivors.
The family’s contribution will be higher than the $6 billion agreed upon in the previous version. The Supreme Court blocked that agreement because it protected members of a 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 settle.
There has been mediation seeking a new contract since the court’s ruling. Failure to do so could open the floodgates for lawsuits 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 it in place until February to iron out the final details. The deadline has already been extended several times.
Several governments, including the states of Maryland and Washington, have regularly opposed the expansions.
The new settlement could bring an end to a chapter in a long legal saga over the days of the opioid crisis, which some experts argued began after the blockbuster painkiller OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the US. The deadliest part is from 2020, when the illegal synthetic opioid fentanyl was found to be a factor in more than 70,000 deaths annually.
Members of the Sackler family were cast as villains and saw their name removed from art galleries and universities they funded around the world for their role in the private company. They continued to deny claims of any wrongdoing.
Family members are collectively estimated to be worth billions more than they would contribute in a settlement, but much of the wealth is in offshore accounts and could 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 claims is that the company targeted doctors with the message that the risk of addiction to Oxycontin was low.
