In 2020, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a settlement with the Justice Department over their leading role in the opioid crisis. Purdue finally admitted to lying to the DEA about having a plan to prevent their powerful drugs from entering the black market, to paying doctors for a speakers program in exchange for the doctors writing more painkiller prescriptions, and to paying an electronic medical records company to send opioid-positive patient records to doctors for reference. The settlement amounted to $8.3 billion, with only $225 million of that to be paid to the federal government by the Sackler family, the owners of Purdue Pharma, for settling civil claims. That comparatively low figure was contingent on the Sacklers participating in a federal bankruptcy settlement with state, local, and tribal governments, through which a separate damages figure would be determined.

The majority of activists affected by the opioid crisis and around 50% of state attorneys general were opposed to both settlements, because they failed to hold any individual, particularly from the Sackler family, personally accountable for their crimes. Advocates reiterated this point in hours of harrowing witness impact statements last week, asking the judge not to approve the secondary bankruptcy settlement. While the judge said she was moved, she still ruled in favor of letting the settlement proceed. Here are the details:

The settlement … calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years. Most of the money is to go to government entities to use to fight the opioid crisis.

Early in Tuesday’s hearing, [U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox] Arleo asked lawyers why Sackler family members were being allowed to pay over 15 years. She was told it was because they had to sell other businesses to secure the cash.

The judge offered a different reason. “They’d rather pay it from future money than pay it now,” she said.

A Purdue lawyer said most of the lawsuits against the company over opioids did not include specific financial claims. But the ones in those that did totaled over $40 trillion in damages.

The settlement is among the largest in a series of settlements by drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies in recent years — and the only major one that includes payments for some individual victims or their survivors.

Payments to individual victims are expected to range from about $8,000 to about $16,000. Some people said Tuesday that they could be rejected for payments because they can’t locate decades-old prescriptions to the pills. Arleo told Purdue bankruptcy lawyers to ensure there are additional ways to prove they were harmed.

Overall, the settlements are worth more than $50 billion, and most of the money is to be used to address the overdose epidemic.

Under the Purdue deal, members of the Sackler family will be shielded from lawsuits over opioids from those who agree to the payments. Family members received payments from the company totaling about $10.7 billion from 2008 through 2018, but said nearly half that amount was used to pay taxes on behalf of the business.

As part of the settlement, Purdue itself will cease to exist and be replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, with a board appointed by the states and an aim of combating the opioid crisis. Millions of internal Purdue documents are to be made public.

Members of the Sackler family also have agreed not to object if their names are taken off museums and other institutions they’ve supported.

[From AP News]

Aw, spare a thought for the poor billionaire family who’ve nobly agreed to let their name be taken off public buildings with nary an objection. At least when the Sackler name is removed from a hospital, the waaaambulance will be right there. GMAFB. I’m not up to date on my pharmaceutical law, so I don’t want to judge this judge without knowing the precedents and other strictures she had to follow while ruling. But morally speaking, if the families of people who’ve lost their lives to the opioid epidemic (1 in 10 of US adults have lost a family member) aren’t happy with this decision, I’d take that as the biggest cue that justice has not been fully served. Still, I was glad the judge called out the 15 years being afforded the Sacklers to come up with $7 billion. As of 2024, the family’s collective estimated net worth was just under $11 billion, so the poor sausages must be trying to generate more money instead of living off a meager $4 billion. What may end up being most fruitful from this settlement is those “millions” of internal Purdue documents being made public. Release the files!

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