Sackler family offers $1.5 billion more than previously to settle Purdue Pharma opioid lawsuits

"In a bid to resolve thousands of lawsuits stemming from the opioid epidemic, the Sackler family pledged to contribute $1.5 billion more than previously promised, roughly $4.3 billion paid out over nine years from their personal fortune," Meryl Kornfield reports for The Washington Post. "After months of negotiations, Purdue Pharma agreed late Monday to a milestone plan to reform the OxyContin maker into a public trust company overseen by an independent board no longer controlled by members of the billionaire Sackler family. In exchange, the members would be released from opioid-related litigation — a contentious point as many suing the company blame the Sackler family, in part, for the opioid epidemic that has killed more than 450,000 people in the United States in the past two decades, following Purdue’s development of OxyContin in 1996."

Under the new plan, which must be approved by a bankruptcy court and will likely face legal challenges from creditors, trusts would distribute the money to state, local and tribal governments, Kornfield reports. The money would fund opioid abatement programs and compensate hospitals, insurers, and individuals who have been affected by opioid abuse, such as family members of overdose victims or guardians of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

The trusts would get $500 million after Purdue emerges from bankruptcy, plus about $1 billion through 2024. "According to Monday’s filing, about 130,000 personal injury claimants, including family members who lost relatives to overdoses from OxyContin, would receive compensation up to an estimated maximum of $48,000," Kornfield reports. "That dollar amount, to families torn apart by addictive opioids, is insufficient, said Charlotte Bismuth, a former New York assistant district attorney following the bankruptcy case."

"I am absolutely appalled, disgusted and angered by the paltry payments reserved for personal injury victims,” Bismuth wrote in an email to Kornfield. "Families were devastated emotionally and financially: $48,000 doesn't even begin to cover funeral costs and lost wages. It is an insult to those families who lost their reason to live overnight."