The Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, the maker of the addictive painkiller oxycontin, have reached a $7.4 billion settlement with a bipartisan coalition of 15 states for fueling the opioid crisis, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Thursday.
The settlement bars the Sackler family from selling opioids in the U.S. and ends its control of Purdue. This comes seven months after the Supreme Court overturned a prior deal with Purdue that would have given the Sackler family immunity from future opioid lawsuits, a provision that is not part of the new deal.
This is the largest settlement with contributors to the opioid crisis in the U.S. The Sackler family will pay the vast majority of the settlement — a total of $6.5 billion over 15 years — while Purdue will pay nearly $900 million up front, if it’s approved by the court.
Over half of the settlement will be distributed over the first few years, including almost $3 billion from the Sacklers. The Sacklers will make a $1.5 billion initial payment, adding another $500 million after one year, $500 million after two years and the remaining $400 million after three years.
The funds will go to communities nationwide to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programs over the next 15 years.
“Families throughout New York and across the nation are suffering from the immense pain and loss wrought by the opioid crisis,” James said in a release announcing the settlement Thursday. “The Sackler family relentlessly pursued profit at the expense of vulnerable patients and played a critical role in starting and fueling the opioid epidemic. While no amount of money will ever fully repair the damage they caused, this massive influx of funds will bring resources to communities in need so that we can heal.”
“The Sacklers’ no longer have control of Purdue will never be allowed to sell opioids in the United States again,” she added.
The deal leaves Purdue in bankruptcy with oversight by a monitor and prevents the company from lobbying or marketing opioids. The states involved in the settlement will appoint a board of trustees to oversee the company and determine its future.
The previous Purdue bankruptcy settlement was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2024. In a 5-4 decision, the justices said that Sackler family members could not be shielded from liability for civil claims related to the opioid epidemic. The original settlement would have required the Sacklers and Purdue to pay over $4.5 billion.
“Hundreds of millions of dollars that would have gone to victims was stuck, and we had to go back to square one,” said Cheryl Juaire, a mother who lost two sons to opioid addiction, at a press conference with James announcing the settlement.
“Three and a half years ago, in the midst of this case, I lost my second son Sean, also to an overdose. I buried him in the midst of an ongoing mediation,” she said. “I truly hope that no one ever has to feel the devastation I have felt in losing two of my three children.”
Juaire noted that the new deal is “even more than the original deal” but emphasized that “this will only happen if the parties that stood in the way the last time will not do so again.”
James has secured up to $250 million for New York from the settlement to support opioid treatment and recovery programs. She negotiated the settlement along with attorney generals from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
“I will continue to go after the companies that caused the opioid epidemic and fight to get justice for those who have suffered,” said James.
