A federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a $4.5 billion opioid settlement that provides sweeping lifetime legal immunity for the billionaire Sackler family behind Purdue Pharma.
“This is a bitter result,” Federal Judge Robert Drain said Wednesday in a lengthy explanation of his approval of the settlement. "I believe that at least some of the Sackler parties also have liability for those [opioid] claims… I would have expected a higher settlement.”
The Sacklers owned and were largely directing Purdue Pharma in the late 1990s when the company allegedly began aggressively and deceptively selling its highly addictive opioid painkiller, OxyContin. Purdue, which has twice pled guilty for wrongdoing in marketing OxyContin, is widely seen as sparking the nationwide epidemic of opioid addiction and overdoses. The opioid crisis has killed nearly 500,000 people in the US in the past two decades.
The Sacklers, who are currently worth about $11 billion, have estimated that they earned more than $10 billion from opioid sales, according to NPR. They will get to keep most of their billions in the settlement and shield it from future opioid-related legal challenges.
The deal
The $4.5 billion settlement brings to a close thousands of lawsuits brought by states, local governments, tribes, individuals, and hospitals. Under the agreement, Purdue Pharma, which had declared bankruptcy, will be dissolved, and the Sacklers will never again be allowed to manufacture opioids. In an initial announcement of the agreement on July 8, New York Attorney General Letitia James explained that the Sackler family will hand over control of family foundations, valued at no less than $175 million, to a public trust dedicated to abating the opioid crisis. They will also provide $4.325 billion to fund "prevention, treatment, and recovery programs in communities across the country."