Federal judge approves opioid settlement for Purdue Pharma | Opioids crisis
A federal bankruptcy court judge on Tuesday formally approved OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to settle thousands of lawsuits related to the harms of opioids.
The deal, approved by US bankruptcy judge Sean Lane, requires members of the Sackler family, which owns the company, to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years. Most of the money will go to government agencies to combat the opioid crisis, which has been linked to 900,000 deaths in the United States since 1999.
Some of the money will be distributed next year to certain people with OxyContin prescriptions and survivors.
The new settlement replaces one that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last year on the grounds that it would improperly protect family members from future lawsuits. Under the current agreement, organizations that refuse to pay can still sue family members.
Members of the Sackler family, who have not had a direct involvement in the company for seven years, will officially relinquish ownership and will be banned from selling opioids anywhere in the world. The company will eventually have a new name: Knoa Pharma and will be operated with a public benefit mission.
The approved settlement is among the largest in a series of opioid settlements totaling nearly $50 billion filed by state and local governments against drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies.
People with addiction and survivors of those who died must prove they were prescribed OxyContin to participate. Those who do so could receive payments of about $8,000 or about $16,000, depending on how long they took the drug and how many others qualify. Money for individual victims will be distributed next year.
Sackler family members also agree not to have their names put on institutions in exchange for donations; This is something they have often done in the past, but many institutions have cut ties with them.
The company also agreed to publicly release a trove of internal documents that could shed more light on how the company promotes and tracks opioids.
One feature of this new agreement, like the previous one, that will not be repeated: forcing members of the Sackler family to hear directly from people harmed by OxyContin.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of opioid-related lawsuits from state and local governments and others. A judge approved a settlement two years later. But the U.S. Supreme Court later rejected that plan because it gave members of the Sackler family protection against opioid-related lawsuits even though they had not personally declared bankruptcy.
The latest plan allows those who disagree with the settlement to file lawsuits against Sackler family members.
This time, few parties objected to the agreement; But some people representing themselves who are or have loved ones addicted to opioids raised concerns during last week’s three-day confirmation hearing.
