All states, territories agree to $7.4B Purdue Pharma opioid settlement
The attorneys general of all 50 states, Washington D.C. and four territories have agreed to sign on to a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and the members of the Sackler family who own the company.
The settlement seeks to resolve thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis. The family members would acknowledge their role in contributing to the epidemic with rampant production and aggressive marketing of opioids for decades.
According to the attorneys general, local governments across the country will now be asked to join the settlement contingent on bankruptcy court proceedings.
The next hearing is slated for Wednesday, when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane will consider Purdue Pharma's request to set a schedule to confirm the company's settlement.
'There will never [be] enough justice, accountability or money to restore the families whose lives have been wrecked or to right the terrible consequences of the Sackler family's craven misconduct. What we announce today is both momentous and insufficient, the culmination of years of tumultuous negotiations and legal battles all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court,' Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) said in a statement.
The settlement was first announced in January. A prior agreement was invalidated by the Supreme Court last June due to a provision in the deal immunizing some members of the wealthy Sackler family from civil lawsuits in exchange for $6 billion.
If approved, the settlement would be the largest to date with individuals responsible for contributing to the deadly opioid epidemic. Local, state, Native American tribal governments and others have filed thousands of lawsuits seeking to hold manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies responsible.
The deal was negotiated by a bipartisan team comprised of attorneys general from Connecticut, California, Texas, Colorado, Delaware, New York, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.
The settlement would deliver funds to the participating states, local governments, affected individuals and other parties who have sued the Sacklers or Purdue.
If finalized, most of the settlement funds would be distributed in the first three years. The Sacklers would pay $1.5 billion and Purdue would pay roughly $900 million in the first payment, followed by $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
7 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Purdue Pharma's $7B opioid settlement plan could get votes from victims and cities
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma 's $7 billion-plus plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids will go before a judge Friday, potentially setting up votes on whether to accept it for local governments, people who became addicted to the drug and other groups. This month, 49 states announced they have signed on to the the proposal. Only Oklahoma, which has a separate settlement with the company, is not involved. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean Lane could decide as soon as Friday whether to advance the nationwide settlement, which was hammered out in negotiations between the company, groups that have sued and representatives of members of the Sackler family who own the company. If Lane moves the plan forward as it's been presented, government entities, emergency room doctors, insurers, families of children born into withdrawal from the powerful prescription painkiller, individual victims and their families and others would have until Sept. 30 to vote on whether to accept the deal. The settlement is a way to avoid trials with claims from states alone that total more than $2 trillion in damages. If approved, the settlement would be among the largest in a wave of lawsuits over the past decade as governments and others sought to hold drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies accountable for the opioid epidemic that started rising in the years after OxyContin hit the market in 1996. The other settlements together are worth about $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to combat the crisis. In the early 2000s, most opioid deaths were linked to prescription drugs, including OxyContin. Since then, heroin and then illicitly produced fentanyl became the biggest killers. In some years, the class of drugs was linked to more than 80,000 deaths, but that number dropped sharply last year. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a version of Purdue's proposed settlement. The court found it was improper to protect members of the Sackler family from lawsuits over opioids, even though they themselves were not filing for bankruptcy protection. In the new version, groups that don't opt in to the settlement would still have the right to sue members of the wealthy family whose name once adorned museum galleries around the world and programs at several prestigious U.S. universities. Under the plan, the Sackler family members would give up ownership of Purdue. They resigned from the company's board and stopped receiving distributions from its funds before the company's initial bankruptcy filing in 2019. The remaining entity would get a new name and its profits would be dedicated to battling the epidemic. Most of the money would go to state and local governments to address the nation's addiction and overdose crisis, but potentially more than $850 million would go directly to individual victims. That makes it different from the other major settlements. The payments would not begin until after a hearing, likely in November, during which Judge Lane would be asked to approve the entire plan if enough of the affected parties agree.
7 hours ago
Purdue Pharma's $7B opioid settlement plan could get votes from victims and cities
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma 's $7 billion-plus plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids will go before a judge Friday, potentially setting up votes on whether to accept it for local governments, people who became addicted to the drug and other groups. This month, 49 states announced they have signed on to the the proposal. Only Oklahoma, which has a separate settlement with the company, is not involved. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean Lane could decide as soon as Friday whether to advance the nationwide settlement, which was hammered out in negotiations between the company, groups that have sued and representatives of members of the Sackler family who own the company. If Lane moves the plan forward as it's been presented, government entities, emergency room doctors, insurers, families of children born into withdrawal from the powerful prescription painkiller, individual victims and their families and others would have until Sept. 30 to vote on whether to accept the deal. The settlement is a way to avoid trials with claims from states alone that total more than $2 trillion in damages. If approved, the settlement would be among the largest in a wave of lawsuits over the past decade as governments and others sought to hold drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies accountable for the opioid epidemic that started rising in the years after OxyContin hit the market in 1996. The other settlements together are worth about $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to combat the crisis. In the early 2000s, most opioid deaths were linked to prescription drugs, including OxyContin. Since then, heroin and then illicitly produced fentanyl became the biggest killers. In some years, the class of drugs was linked to more than 80,000 deaths, but that number dropped sharply last year. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a version of Purdue's proposed settlement. The court found it was improper to protect members of the Sackler family from lawsuits over opioids, even though they themselves were not filing for bankruptcy protection. In the new version, groups that don't opt in to the settlement would still have the right to sue members of the wealthy family whose name once adorned museum galleries around the world and programs at several prestigious U.S. universities. Under the plan, the Sackler family members would give up ownership of Purdue. They resigned from the company's board and stopped receiving distributions from its funds before the company's initial bankruptcy filing in 2019. The remaining entity would get a new name and its profits would be dedicated to battling the epidemic. Most of the money would go to state and local governments to address the nation's addiction and overdose crisis, but potentially more than $850 million would go directly to individual victims. That makes it different from the other major settlements. The payments would not begin until after a hearing, likely in November, during which Judge Lane would be asked to approve the entire plan if enough of the affected parties agree.
San Francisco Chronicle
8 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Purdue Pharma's $7B opioid settlement plan could get votes from victims and cities
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma 's $7 billion-plus plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids will go before a judge Friday, potentially setting up votes on whether to accept it for local governments, people who became addicted to the drug and other groups. This month, 49 states announced they have signed on to the the proposal. Only Oklahoma, which has a separate settlement with the company, is not involved. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Sean Lane could decide as soon as Friday whether to advance the nationwide settlement, which was hammered out in negotiations between the company, groups that have sued and representatives of members of the Sackler family who own the company. If Lane moves the plan forward as it's been presented, government entities, emergency room doctors, insurers, families of children born into withdrawal from the powerful prescription painkiller, individual victims and their families and others would have until Sept. 30 to vote on whether to accept the deal. The settlement is a way to avoid trials with claims from states alone that total more than $2 trillion in damages. If approved, the settlement would be among the largest in a wave of lawsuits over the past decade as governments and others sought to hold drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies accountable for the opioid epidemic that started rising in the years after OxyContin hit the market in 1996. The other settlements together are worth about $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to combat the crisis. In the early 2000s, most opioid deaths were linked to prescription drugs, including OxyContin. Since then, heroin and then illicitly produced fentanyl became the biggest killers. In some years, the class of drugs was linked to more than 80,000 deaths, but that number dropped sharply last year. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a version of Purdue's proposed settlement. The court found it was improper to protect members of the Sackler family from lawsuits over opioids, even though they themselves were not filing for bankruptcy protection. In the new version, groups that don't opt in to the settlement would still have the right to sue members of the wealthy family whose name once adorned museum galleries around the world and programs at several prestigious U.S. universities. Under the plan, the Sackler family members would give up ownership of Purdue. They resigned from the company's board and stopped receiving distributions from its funds before the company's initial bankruptcy filing in 2019. The remaining entity would get a new name and its profits would be dedicated to battling the epidemic. Most of the money would go to state and local governments to address the nation's addiction and overdose crisis, but potentially more than $850 million would go directly to individual victims. That makes it different from the other major settlements. The payments would not begin until after a hearing, likely in November, during which Judge Lane would be asked to approve the entire plan if enough of the affected parties agree.
