A federal bankruptcy court judge on Tuesday formally approved OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the harms of opioids.
The deal approved by US bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane requires members of the Sackler family who own the company to contribute up to $7bn over 15 years. Most of the money is to go to government entities to fight the opioid crisis that has been linked to 900,000 deaths in the US since 1999.
A portion of the money is to be distributed next year to some people who had OxyContin prescriptions and their survivors.
The new agreement replaces one the US supreme court rejected last year, finding it would have improperly protected members of the family against future lawsuits. Under the current agreement, entities that do not opt into the payments can still sue members of the family.
Sackler family members, who have not had direct involvement in the company for seven years, will officially give up ownership and be barred from selling opioids anywhere in the world. The company will eventually get a new name – Knoa Pharma – and be operated with a public-interest mission.
The approved deal is among the largest in a series of opioid settlements brought by state and local governments against drugmakers , wholesalers and pharmacies that totaled about $50bn.
People with addiction and survivors of those who died must prove they were prescribed OxyContin to participate. Those who do could receive payments of about $8,000 or about $16,000, depending on how long they received the drug and how many other people qualify. The money for individual victims is to be distributed next year.
Sackler family members are also agreeing not to have their name put on institutions in exchange for contributions – something they have done often in the past, though many institutions have cut ties with them.
The company has also agreed to make public a trove of internal documents that could shed additional light into how the company promoted and monitored opioids.
One feature that will not be repeated under this new deal that was in a previous one: forcing members of the Sackler family to hear directly from people harmed by OxyContin.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 when it was facing thousands of opioid-related lawsuits from state and local governments and others. A judge approved a settlement two years later. But the US supreme court later rejected that plan because it gave members of the Sackler family protection from lawsuits over opioids even though they were not personally declaring bankruptcy.
The latest plan allows lawsuits against Sackler family members by those who don’t opt into the deal.
This time through, few parties objected to the settlement, though some people who represented themselves and who were addicted to opioids – or had loved ones who were – raised concerns during the three-day confirmation hearing last week.
