OxyContin maker, owners to settle lawsuits for $7.4B

Drug company Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family on Thursday agreed to increase their payments to end thousands of lawsuits. The lawsuits allege the pharmaceutical company and the family that controlled it aggressively marketed the pain medication OxyContin for decades, fueling an opioid addiction epidemic in the United States. If a court approves the settlement, the Sackler family would pay about $6.5 billion and wouldn’t be shielded from future lawsuits, while Purdue Pharma would pay another $900 million. A group of 15 states and other plaintiffs negotiated the deal which will deliver funds to communities over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment and prevention.

What has led to this point? Kentucky in 2007 filed one of the first major lawsuits against Purdue Pharma in connection with the opioid epidemic that ravaged Appalachia. More lawsuits followed and in 2018 Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed the first state lawsuit specifically against the company’s executives and directors. The Massachusetts lawsuit alleged the company and individuals deceived doctors and the public about the risks posed by opioids.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2019. A bankruptcy court later approved a restructuring plan that granted lifetime legal protection for Sackler family members while requiring them to pay $4.3 billion over nine years to the plaintiffs. A district court in 2021 found the bankruptcy court lacked the authority to force states to release their claims against the Sacklers. Nine states negotiated a new $6 billion settlement but the U.S. Supreme Court last summer overturned the agreement, rejecting the Sackler family’s request for immunity. The states, the company, and Sackler family resumed mediation after the ruling.

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Muncy’s report about how states are planning to use settlement funds from the drug company.