OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is trying to chart the course for a new mass settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids after the U.S. Supreme Court last month which was State, local and tribal governments and individual victims want a sense of justice — and money.
And in this case, there's not enough money to pay for all harms that are claimed. Most of what there is is held by members of the Sackler family who own Purdue — much of it in overseas trust funds that are protected from U.S.
lawsuits. Here's a look at where things stand: A nationwide has been raging for decades. In recent years, overdoses have been linked to about 80,000 deaths a year.
Currently, the biggest killers are fentanyl and other potent substances produced illicitly in labs. Before that, it was heroin, and before that prescription drugs, including OxyContin, which hit the market in 1996. Purdue targeted doctors with a campaign asserting that there was a low risk of addiction to its latest formulation of a kind of drug that's been around for centuries.
Since 2017, drugmakers, wholesalers, pharmacy chains and other businesses have agreed to pay more than $50 billion in settlements with governments that have sued. Most of the money is intended to go to . Purdue's deal would be among the largest.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection nearly five years ago as a way to settle all the legal claims it was facing. The deal it ultimately struck called for Sackler family members, who had already.
