Purdue Pharma owners could pay US$7.4 billion in new settlement to lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin

In this Aug. 9, 2021, file photo, fake pill bottles with messages about OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma are displayed during a protest outside the courthouse where the bankruptcy of the company is taking place in White Plains, N.Y. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Members of the family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, and the company itself, agreed to pay up to US$7.4 billion in a new settlement to lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller, the attorneys general from several states announced Thursday.

The deal, agreed to by Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family members who own the company and lawyers representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis, replaces a previous settlement deal that was rejected last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the new one, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and give up ownership of the company, which would pay nearly $900 million. The maximum contribution from family members is $500 million more than the previous deal.

It’s among the largest settlements reached over the past several years in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for a deadly epidemic. Aside from the Purdue deal, others worth around $50 billion have been announced — and most of the money is required to be used to stem the crisis.

The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out. An arm of the federal Department of Justice opposed the previous settlement, even after every state agreed, and took the battle to the U.S. 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, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver treatment and overdose rescue medicines that will save lives,” Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue said in a statement.

Representatives for Sackler family members did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kara Trainor, a Michigan woman in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after receiving a prescription for OxyContin to deal with a back injury 23 years ago. She praised the deal.

“Everything in my life is shaped by a company that put profits over human lives,” she said.

“While no amount of money will ever fully repair the damage they caused, this massive influx of funds will bring resources to communities in need so that we can heal,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 15 state attorneys general involved in negotiating the deal.

In West Virginia, the epicenter of the opioid crisis, Attorney General JB McCuskey agreed to the deal but had harsh words for the company and its owners. “While West Virginians' lives were being destroyed by opioid addiction, the Sacklers were cashing in every time someone got hooked — getting rich with no regard to the toll their drugs were taking on people, families and our communities,” the Republican said in a statement.

Not every state has signed on yet. A spokesperson for Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said the office is still reviewing the deal and weighing its options.

Under the new proposal, like the previous one, members of the Sackler family would also give up ownership of Purdue. They’ve already stepped down from the company’s board and have not taken distributions from Purdue since before the bankruptcy filing. The company would become a new entity with its board appointed by states and others who sued the company.

Between $800 million and $850 million is also to go to victims of the opioid crisis or their survivors, said Ed Neiger, a lawyer for individual victims; that’s a feature something that most opioid settlements do not include. The deal also includes as much as $800 million set aside to pay for future settlements if new lawsuits arise against the Sacklers, according to the New York attorney general’s office.

The Supreme Court blocked the earlier agreement last year because it protected members of the wealthy family from civil lawsuits over OxyContin — even though the family members themselves were not in bankruptcy. The new agreement protects family members from lawsuits only from entities that agree to the settlement.

If a new deal is not approved, it could open the floodgates to lawsuits against Sackler family members. A U.S. bankruptcy judge is expected to decide Friday whether to keep temporary protections for them in place through February.

The new settlement could bring to a close a chapter in a long legal saga over the toll of an opioid crisis that some experts assert began after OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.S. The deadliest stretch has been since 2020, when illicit fentanyl has been found as a factor in more than 70,000 deaths annually.

Members of the Sackler family have been cast as villains and have seen their name removed from art galleries and universities around the world because of their role in the privately-held company. They’ve continued to deny claims of any wrongdoing.

Collectively, family members have been estimated to be worth billions more than they’d contribute in the settlement, but much of the wealth is in offshore accounts and might be impossible to access through lawsuits.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, said the settlement would not bring the family financial ruin.

“This is about families impacted by this crisis. And this is about a group of people and a family that are among the most notorious wrongdoers … and we are holding them accountable,” he said.

Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis. Among the claims are that the company targeted doctors with a message that the addiction risk to the powerful painkillers was low.

In an October 2024 filing, one branch of the family pledged to defend itself in any cases that are allowed to move ahead, saying that the legal theory at the heart of the lawsuits — that Purdue and Sackler family members created a “public nuisance” — “is utterly devoid of merits.”

Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press

Associated Press reporters David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.