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Pennsylvania, Delaware and 13 other states have reached a new $7.4 billion national settlement deal with Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin, and the Sackler family, who are accused of fueling a national opioid addiction epidemic.
The new agreement comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a previous deal last June — one that granted members of the Sackler family immunity from future opioid lawsuits.
Under the new deal and terms, there will be no such shield. Other states, cities, communities and individuals still need to approve and sign on to the agreement before any payouts are finalized.
Attorneys general in the Delaware Valley called it a “bittersweet moment,” referring to the many lives lost to drug overdoses over the last two and a half decades.
More than 500,000 people in the United States have died from opioid-related drug overdoses since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdoses involved prescription opioids, illicitly manufactured pills, heroin and synthetic substances like fentanyl.
“No dollar amount could ever replace what has been lost due to the opioid epidemic, but this settlement will go a long way in bolstering treatment resources and helping Pennsylvanians achieve recovery,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement Thursday.