OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and family members who own the company have agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion in a new settlement to end lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller, New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

The deal announced Thursday represents an increase of more than $1 billion Previous settlement that was rejected Last year by the US Supreme Court. The settlement was approved by Purdue Pharma, members of the Sackler family who own the company and attorneys representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis.

The Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and Purdue $900 million.

They are among the largest settlements reached over the past several years in a series of lawsuits brought by local tribal governments, state governments, Native American governments and other plaintiffs seeking to hold opioid manufacturers responsible for the deadly addiction epidemic. Aside from the Purdue deal, other deals worth about $50 billion have been announced – and most of the money is needed to stem the crisis.

The deal still needs court approval, and some details have yet to be ironed out. An arm of the US Department of Justice opposed the previous settlement, even after all states joined it, and took the battle to the Supreme Court. But under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal.

“We are very pleased to have reached a new agreement that will provide billions of dollars to compensate victims, alleviate the opioid crisis, and provide treatment and overdose rescue medications that will save lives,” Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, said in a statement. .

Cara Trainor, a Michigan woman who has been in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after receiving a prescription for OxyContin to deal with a back injury 23 years ago. She praised the deal.

“Everything in my life is shaped by a company that puts profits over human lives,” she said.

James is joined in securing the settlement in principle by attorneys general in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Future lawsuits

Under the new proposal, Sackler family members would contribute up to $6.5 billion over 15 years and relinquish ownership of Purdue, which would become a new entity whose board would be appointed by states and others who have sued the company. Purdue will pay $900 million. A portion of the funds will also go to victims or survivors of the opioid crisis.

The family’s contribution will be higher than the $6 billion agreed upon under the previous version. The Supreme Court blocked this agreement because it protected wealthy family members from civil lawsuits over OxyContin even though the family members themselves were not in bankruptcy. The new agreement protects family members from lawsuits only from entities that agree to the settlement.

There has been mediation seeking to reach a new agreement since the court ruling. If a resolution is not reached, it could open the floodgates to lawsuits against members of the Sackler family.

A court order blocking lawsuits against Sackler family members is set to expire Friday, but the parties are asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to keep that in place until February to iron out final details. The deadline has already been extended several times.

Some governments, including Maryland and Washington, have routinely opposed the extension.

The new settlement could end a chapter in a long legal saga over the toll of the opioid crisis, which some experts contend began after the blockbuster painkiller OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of thousands of people. of overdose deaths in the United States. The period was the deadliest since 2020 when the illicit synthetic opioid fentanyl was found to be a factor in more than 70,000 deaths annually.

Members of the Sackler family were portrayed as villains and saw their names removed from art galleries and universities they funded around the world because of their role in the privately owned company. They have continued to deny allegations of wrongdoing.

Collectively, the family members are worth billions more than they will contribute to the settlement, but much of the wealth is in offshore accounts and may be impossible to access through lawsuits.

Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis. Among the allegations is that the company targeted doctors with the message that the risk of OxyContin addiction was low.