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Purdue Pharma has won support from attorney generals of 55 US states and territories in a $7.4 billion settlement and settled thousands of opioid lawsuits against drug makers and their owners, members of the Sackler family.
The support announced Monday by New York Attorney General Leticia James and other states in January, and the settlement framework announced by Purdue Pharma could help him win court approval for bankruptcy restructuring.
The $7.4 billion payment is intended to resolve claims that drugmaker OxyContin painkiller caused a nationwide crisis of opioid addiction.
This includes around $6.5 billion from Sackler and around $900 million from Purdue Pharma.
Payments begin after the drugmaker has obtained sufficient creditor support for Chapter 11 plan. The money will be sent to individuals, state and local governments, and Native American tribes, and Sacklers will surrender control of Purdue and be prohibited from selling opioids in the United States.
“For decades, bags have played a leading role in making people profitable and promoting the epidemic,” James said in a statement. “We can't completely heal the destruction they caused, but these funds save lives and help our community fight back against the opioid crisis.”
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Oklahoma is not included in Monday's agreement, according to some attorney generals. Oklahoma reached a $270 million settlement with Purdue Pharma and Sackler in 2019 to settle opioid-related claims.
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Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an earlier settlement that would have given Sackler a wide immunity from opioid-related civil suits. Sackler would have paid about $6 billion under the settlement.
More than 850,000 people have died from opioid-related overdose since 1999, but deaths have been declining recently, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2022, Purdue agreed to pay $150 million to Canadian provinces and territories to resolve a class action lawsuit against the company over the Canadian opioid crisis. This amount was the biggest settlement of government health claims in Canadian history.
– Using additional files from Global News
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