A federal bankruptcy judge has given his approval to a monumental $7bn settlement involving Purdue Pharma, the maker of the controversial painkiller OxyContin. This deal, one of the largest in US legal history, mandates that the multibillionaire Sackler family pay billions to victims and surrender control of the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company.
The Landmark Ruling and Its Stipulations
On Friday, US Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane confirmed he would approve the complex settlement, which resolves thousands of lawsuits linked to the devastating opioid epidemic. The new agreement requires members of the Sackler family to contribute up to $7bn and forces them to give up ownership of Purdue Pharma.
This settlement replaces a previous deal that was struck down by the US Supreme Court last year. The court had found that the earlier agreement would have granted the Sackler family improper protection from future lawsuits. Judge Lane stated he would provide a full explanation for his decision during a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
A Chapter in the Opioid Crisis Saga
The approved plan marks a potential conclusion to a long and arduous legal battle aiming to hold Purdue Pharma accountable for its role in a national public health disaster. The opioid crisis, fuelled in part by the aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has been connected to approximately 900,000 deaths in the US since 1999. This figure includes fatalities from heroin and illicit fentanyl, substances that many individuals turned to after their supply of prescription painkillers was restricted.
Legal experts have described the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy as one of the most complicated in American history. After six years of litigation involving claims totalling trillions of dollars, attorneys for nearly all parties—including Purdue, cities, states, counties, Native American tribes, and individuals affected by addiction—were nearly unanimous in urging the judge to approve the plan tentatively agreed upon this January.
The Fall of the Sackler Dynasty
The Sackler family, which owned the privately held Purdue Pharma, built a reputation as prominent philanthropists on the massive profits generated by OxyContin. The company, grown by now-deceased family members into a specialist in pain treatment in the early 1990s, saw its fortunes—and the Sacklers' reputation—dramatically reverse.
Investigative journalism and public activism exposed the company's aggressive tactics to boost prescriptions of the opioid, despite mounting evidence of widespread addiction and a soaring death toll across the United States. This settlement represents a significant step towards justice for the countless victims and communities ravaged by the epidemic.
