Special to IFN
RALEIGH – Attorney General Jeff Jackson has announced a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, for their role in creating the opioid crisis.
Under the Sacklers’ leadership, Purdue invented, manufactured, and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, fueling the largest drug crisis in the nation’s history. The settlement ends the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and their ability to sell opioids in the United States.
It will deliver funds directly to communities across the country over the next 15 years to support addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs. This $7.4 billion settlement in principle is the nation’s largest settlement to date with individuals responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis.
North Carolina’s state and local governments will receive as much as $150 million from this settlement, which will go to the state and local governments under the terms of North Carolina’s Memorandum of Agreement.
“Purdue and the Sackler family are finally being held to account for the role they’ve played in fueling addiction and deaths across North Carolina and the nation,” Jackson said. “This settlement means we will get more money than the original plan and the Sacklers will be required to exit the opioid business. Attorneys in our office have spent years working to get to this point, and I’m deeply grateful for their efforts.”
If approved, the settlement will deliver funds to the participating states, local governments, affected people, and other parties who have previously sued the Sacklers or Purdue. Most of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years. The Sacklers will pay $1.5 billion and Purdue will pay nearly $900 million in the first payment, followed by $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years.
The settlement will also lead to the following changes:
♦ The states and other creditors will select a board of trustees to determine the future of the company.
♦ Purdue will continue to be overseen by a monitor and will be prevented from lobbying or marketing opioids under the settlement.
♦ Purdue and the Sacklers will make public more than 30 million documents related to their opioid business. The document repository will now also contain documents relating to compliance with the 2007 state attorneys general consent judgments, and after six years will make public documents subject to the waiver of privilege.
In 2021, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved a multistate settlement covering Purdue and the Sackler family that would have required them to pay more than $4.5 billion. In June 2024, the United States Supreme Court invalidated the previous bankruptcy settlement with the Sacklers, holding that they were not entitled to a blanket or automatic shield from liability. The current settlement in principle does not offer the Sacklers any such automatic protection, but rather is built on consensual releases in exchange for the payments the Sacklers will be making.
Members of the Sackler family included in the settlement in principle include the eight heirs of Purdue founders Raymond and Mortimer Sackler who served on the Board of Purdue: Richard, Kathe, Mortimer Jr., Ilene, David, and Theresa Sackler; and the estates of Jonathan and Beverly Sackler. In addition, their associated trusts, advisers, and most of their children and heirs are also included.
Including this new settlement, the Department of Justice has secured nearly $1.6 billion in opioid settlement funds for North Carolina, with local governments slated to receive $1.3 billion. The Community Opioid Resources Engine (CORE-NC) allows people to see how each local government is using its opioid settlement funds, including payment schedules, spending plans, past spending, annual narratives, and local contacts.
Attorney General Jeff Jackson is joined in securing this settlement in principle by the Attorneys General of New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.