A US judge is expected to sentence OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma to forfeit $225m (£182m) to the Department of Justice on Tuesday, clearing the way for the company to finalise a settlement of thousands of lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis. The penalty was agreed in a 2020 pact to resolve federal civil and criminal investigations.
If the judge signs off, the settlement requires members of the Sackler family, who own the company, to pay up to $7bn (£5.7bn) to state, local and Native American tribal governments, individual victims and others. The forfeiture follows Purdue's guilty plea to three federal criminal charges in November 2020.
Purdue admitted it did not have an effective programme to prevent its powerful prescription painkillers from being diverted to the black market, despite telling the US Drug Enforcement Administration otherwise. It also admitted paying doctors through a speakers programme to prescribe the drugs and paying an electronic medical records company to send doctors information that encouraged more opioid prescriptions.
Under the broader settlement, the government agreed not to collect $5.3bn (£4.3bn) in criminal forfeitures and fines and $2.8bn (£2.3bn) in civil liabilities. Instead, portions of that money are considered part of the settlement. Purdue itself will cease to exist and be replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, which will operate for public benefit with a board appointed by states.
More than 54,000 people with personal injury claims voted to accept the settlement, but some victims and their families continue to push back, arguing that the deal stops short of justice for a crisis linked to 900,000 US deaths since 1999. Susan Ousterman, whose son died of an overdose in 2020, organised others to deliver victim impact statements at Tuesday's sentencing.
