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The members of the family owner of the Oxycontin manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, and the company itself, agreed to pay up to 7.4 billion dollars in a new agreement after the demands for the consequences of the powerful analgesic for the sale of prescription, the attorney general of the attorney general of New York, Letitia James.
The agreement, which Purdue Pharma, the members of the Sackler family, owner of the company, and the lawyers representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis, represents an increase of more than 1,000 million of dollars with respect to a previous understanding that was rejected last year by the Supreme Court.
The Sackler agreed to pay up to 6.5 billion dollars, and Purdue, 900 million dollars, which represents a total of 7.4 billion dollars.
It is one of the largest agreements reached in recent years in a series of lawsuits filed by Native American local, state and tribal governments, among others, to hold the companies of an epidemic responsible that has charged hundreds of thousands of lives. Apart from the agreement with Purdue, others have been announced worth 50,000 million dollars. Most of the money must be destined to stop the crisis.
The agreement still needs the approval of the Courts and some details have not yet been completed. A branch of the Federal Department of Justice opposed the previous agreement, even after all states adhered, and took the battle to the Supreme Court. But under the presidency of Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new understanding.
“We are extremely satisfied that a new agreement has been reached That he will deliver billions of dollars to compensate for the victims, combat the opioid crisis and deliver treatment and overdose medications that will save lives, “Purdue said, based in Stamford, Connecticut, in a statement.
Kara Trainor, a Michigan woman in recovery for 17 years, said she became an opioid addict after receiving an oxycontin recipe to deal with a back injury 23 years ago. She praised the agreement.
“Everything in my life is marked by a company that put the profits before human lives,” he said.
The General Prosecutors of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia have joined the prosecutor James to achieve the principle agreement.
According to the new proposal, The members of the Sackler family would contribute up to 6.5 billion dollars Throughout 15 years and would renounce the property of Purdue, which would become a new entity whose board of directors would be appointed by the states and other people who demanded the company. Purdue must pay 900 million dollars. A part of the money will also be allocated to the victims of the opioid crisis or who survive.
The family contribution will exceed 6,000 million dollars agreed in the previous version. The Supreme Court blocked the agreement last year because it protected the members of the wealthy family of civil lawsuits for Oxycontin, although the family members themselves were not bankrupt. The new agreement protects family members from demands only from the entities that accept the agreement.
There have been mediations in search of a new agreement from the ruling of the Supreme Court. If one is not reached, this could open the gates to demands against the members of the Sackler family.
The court order that blocks the demands against members of the Sackler family expires on Friday, but the parties have asked a judge of the United States bankruptcy court that I keep in force until February to file the last details. The deadline has already been extended several times.
Some governments, including those of the states of Maryland and Washington, They have systematically opposed the extensions.
The new agreement could close a chapter of a long legal saga on the consequences of the opioid crisis that, according to some experts, began after the sales success of the Oxycontin analgesic in 1996. Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of Thousands of deaths in the United States. The period with more deaths has been since 2020, when it was discovered that illicit fentanyl is a factor in more than 70,000 deaths per year.

The members of the Sackler family have been branded as villains and have seen their name retired from art galleries and universities around the world for their role in private companies. They have continued to deny any accusation of having committed a crime.
Collectively, it has been estimated that family members are worth thousands of millions more than they would contribute to the agreement, but much of the wealth is in accounts abroad and it could be impossible to access them through demands.
Purdue requested bankruptcy protection in 2019 When facing thousands of demands for the opioid crisis. Among them is that the company addressed doctors with the message that the risk of addiction to powerful analgesics was minimal.
In documents presented in court in October 2024, a family branch promised to defend itself before any case that would advance in court, arguing that the legal theory at the center of the demands – which Purdue and the members of the Sackler family created A “public problem” – “It totally lacks merits.”