Purdue Pharma submits opioid lawsuit settlement plan, including up to $7
billion cash from Sacklers
[March 19, 2025]
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Purdue Pharma asked a bankruptcy judge late Tuesday to consider the
latest version of its plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll
of the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin, a deal that would
have members of the Sackler family who own the company pay up to $7
billion.
The filing is a milestone in a tumultuous legal saga that has gone on
for more than five years.
Under the deal the family members — estimated in documents from 2020 and
2021 to be worth about $11 billion — would give up ownership of the
company in addition to contributing money over 15 years with the biggest
payment up front.
Family members resigned from Purdue's board, stopped receiving money
from the company and ceased other involvement before it filed for
bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced lawsuits from thousands of
state and local governments, plus others.
The new entity would be run by a board appointed by state governments,
and its mission will be to abate the opioid crisis that has been linked
to hundreds of thousands of deaths in the U.S. since OxyContin hit the
market in 1996. The first wave of deadly overdoses were tied to
OxyContin and other prescription drugs, and subsequent waves have
involved first heroin and more recently illicit versions of fentanyl.
This settlement plan was hammered out in months of mediation involving
groups that sued Purdue, and nearly all of them are supporting it,
according to mediator reports filed in court.
Approval would take at least several more months.
A previous version had bankruptcy court approval but was rejected last
year by the U.S. Supreme Court because it protected members of the
Sackler family from civil lawsuits even though none of them filed for
bankruptcy protection themselves.
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 Under the new version, plaintiffs
will have to opt in to get full shares of the settlement. If they do
not, they can still sue Sackler family members, who agreed to put in
about $1 billion more than under earlier plans. The Sacklers' cash
contribution would depends in part on how many parties join the
settlement and on the sale of foreign drug companies. Some of the
money they put into the settlement is to be reserved to pay any
judgments if they are sued and lose; but if that doesn't happen,
it's to go into the main settlement.
Members of the 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 continue to deny any wrongdoing.
Other drugmakers, distribution companies, pharmacy chains and others
have already reached opioid lawsuit settlements worth about $50
billion, according to an Associated Press tally. Purdue's, which
would also include about $900 million from company coffers, would be
among the largest if finalized.
The deals require most of the money be used to fight the opioid
crisis.
Purdue's is the only major one that also provides direct money for
victims — potentially more than $850 million total in pools for
people who became addicted, their families and babies born in
withdrawal. That figure is more than in the previous incarnation.
The deadline to apply for a piece of those funds passed years ago.
In earlier versions, individuals were expected to receive between
about $3,500 and $48,000. Families were split over the deal.
Purdue would also provide millions of documents to a repository that
would make them public. The company has also been producing a
low-cost version of naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses.
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