OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reaches settlement over opioid crisis

Purdue Pharma, maker of the popular painkiller OxyContin, agreed to a nationwide settlement over the company’s roll in the ongoing opioid crisis. Thursday’s settlement marked an adjustment from an earlier settlement that was appealed by eight states and the District of Columbia. In the new deal, the Sackler family, owner of Purdue Pharma, must boost its cash contribution from $4.3 billion to as much as $6 billion. The settlement also calls for members of the Sackler family to give up control of Purdue Pharma so it can be turned into a new entity with profits used to fight the opioid crisis.

“The Sacklers will issue a fresh apology. The Sackler name will come down anywhere a university or a museum or a hospital wants it to come down,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Thursday. The video above includes clips from a briefing discussing the settlement. “They have to get out of the business of opioids and prescription pain medication, not just in this country, but around the world. They have to sell their international businesses and divest, and Purdue has to get shut down.”

Purdue Pharma is based in Connecticut, which was one of the eight states to appeal the original settlement. In exchange for the settlement, the Sackler family would be protected from civil lawsuits. The deal does not shield members of the family from criminal charges, although there’s no indication any are forthcoming.

“The families have consistently affirmed that settlement is by far the best way to help solve a serious and complex public health crisis,” spokespeople for the Sacklers said in a statement, according to Business Wire. “While the families have acted lawfully in all respects, they sincerely regret that OxyContin, a prescription medicine that continues to help people suffering from chronic pain, unexpectedly became part of an opioid crisis that has brought grief and loss to far too many families and communities.”

Purdue Pharma had promoted OxyContin’s use for a broad range of pain issues for which doctors previously had shied away from prescribing opioids. The opioid crisis has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the United States over the past 20 years.