Purdue, Sackler Family Agree to $7.4 Billion OxyContin Settlement

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, which controls it, have agreed to pay up to $7.4bn (£6bn) to settle claims over the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin.

The deal represents an increase of more than $1 billion over the previous settlement which was rejected in 2024 by the US Supreme CourtAP and Reuters news agencies report.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and Purdue up to $900 million.

Oxycontin, which is often a gateway drug to harder drugs like heroin, has been blamed for fueling America’s deadly opioid crisis and has netted the Sackler family billions of dollars.

“We are thrilled that a new agreement has been reached that will provide billions of dollars to compensate victims, alleviate the opioid crisis, and provide life-saving treatment and overdose medications,” Perdue said in a statement.

The deal still needs court approval and some details have yet to be ironed out, but the AP says it is one of the largest settlements reached in a series of lawsuits by local, state governments, Indian tribes and others seeking to hold the company accountable for deadly epidemic.

According to the AP, under President Donald Trump, the federal government will not oppose the new deal.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told Reuters the settlement would help provide closure for victims of the opioid crisis.

“It’s not just about the money,” Tong said. “There isn’t enough money in the world to make things right.”

Since 1999, a few years after the drug became available, opioid overdose deaths have risen to tens of thousands each year.

Court documents say the Sackler family was long aware of the legal risks and withdrew about $11 billion from the company in the decade before it went bankrupt. They hid a large part of the money abroad, and some of it was used to pay the company’s taxes, which made it difficult to get the money back.