A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge is set to give his reasoning Tuesday for approving OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids.
The deal calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to pay up to $7 billion over time.
Judge Sean Lane said last week that he would accept the plan, which ranks among the largest opioid settlements ever and would do something other major ones don’t: Pay some victims of the crisis.
Money will go to governments and some individuals
Sackler family members agreed to pay up to $7 billion over 15 years, providing most of the cash involved in the settlement.
The funds distributed to state, local and Native Americans is to be used mostly to address the opioid crisis, as has been the case with other opioid settlements.
About $850 million of that is to go to individual victims, including children born with opioid withdrawal.
People with addiction and survivors of those who died must prove they were prescribed OxyContin to participate. Those who do could receive payments of around $8,000 or around $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.
Not only money is at stake
Members of the Sackler family are agreeing to give up ownership of Purdue.
For them, that won’t be a major change since no family member has served on Purdue’s board or received money from the company since 2018. The plan calls for Purdue to be replaced with a new company, Knoa Pharma, controlled by a board appointed by states and with a mission of benefiting the public.
Sackler family members will also agree to avoid putting their names on institutions in exchange for contributions—something they’ve done often in the past, despite many institutions cutting 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 won’t recur under this new deal that was in a previous one: forcing members of the Sackler family to hear directly from people harmed by OxyContin.
A long legal saga could be wrapping up
Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 when 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 provided members of the Sackler family immunity from lawsuits over opioids even though they were not personally declaring bankruptcy.
The latest plan permits lawsuits against Sackler family members by those who don’t opt into the deal.
This time through, few parties objected to the settlement. However, individuals representing themselves, who were either addicted to opioids or had loved ones who were, raised concerns during a three-day confirmation hearing last week.
