Members of the powerful Sackler family who oversee Purdue Pharma, maker of highly addictive OxyContin, struck a deal with state attorneys general for $6 billion to settle widespread litigation over the family’s role in perpetuating the opioid epidemic.
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New York Judge Robert Drain, who has overseen Purdue’s bankruptcy filing, will still have to approve the settlement, which would allow the Sacklers to fulfill their goal to end all civil claims against them.
“While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities,” the Sacklers said in a statement Thursday.
The settlement, if approved, would open the door to billions of dollars for states to initiate addiction abatement programs and stock up on resources such as naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug. Under the deal, the Sacklers also will not be able to put up a fight when institutions to which they have donated money remove their names from buildings funded by them. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for instance, has already removed the Sackler name from seven of the museum’s exhibition spaces.
“We’re pleased with the settlement achieved in mediation, under which all of the additional settlement funds will be used for opioid abatement programs, overdose rescue medicines, and victims,” Purdue said in a statement.
An earlier settlement reached in September last year was subsequently vacated by Drain in December because it released members of the billionaire Sackler family from liability in civil opioid-related cases. The Sacklers had stipulated in the September agreement, which was overwhelmingly agreed to by state lawmakers, local leaders, tribes, and individuals, that they would pay $4.5 billion over nine years to the settlement fund in exchange for immunity in the wide range of civil lawsuits.
Attorneys general from eight states and D.C. refused to sign on to the deal last year and objected to Drain’s decision then to sign off on it. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called Thursday’s agreement “both significant and insufficient — constrained by the inadequacies of our federal bankruptcy code.”
“But this fight has never been about the money,” Tong said. “After years of lies and denial, the Sackler family must now directly apologize for the pain they have caused. They must reckon face-to-face with the survivors of their reckless greed at a public hearing… ensuring this family is remembered throughout history for their callous disdain for human suffering and nothing else.”
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Thursday’s agreement comes about a week after a landmark joint settlement to thousands of legal claims against pharmaceutical distributors over their role in the opioid epidemic. Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp, and Cardinal Health Inc. will send $26 billion over time to virtually every state and local government throughout the U.S.
