CHARLESTON W.Va. (WVDN) — West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey on Thursday announced that a bipartisan coalition of states and other parties have reached a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with members of the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma Inc. for their instrumental role in creating the opioid crisis.
Purdue, under the Sacklers’ leadership, invented, manufactured, and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, fueling waves of addiction and overdose deaths across the country.
The settlement ends the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and ability to sell opioids in the United States and will deliver funding directly to communities across the country over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programs.
“While West Virginian’s lives were being destroyed by opioid addiction, the Sacklers were cashing in every time someone got hooked – getting rich with no regard to the toll their drugs were taking on people, families and our communities. The destruction they caused not only our state, but our nation, is an evil that is hard to put into words,” Attorney General McCuskey said.
The Sacklers’ disregard for West Virginians was first revealed when emails emerged blaming victims for the opioid epidemic, calling them “pillbillies”. In one email, Richard Sackler wrote “Abusers die, well that is the choice they made.”
“While litigation and settlements will not bring back the lives lost from the opioid epidemic, our hope is that the money from all the settlements through the years from manufacturers, pharmacies, distributors, and others will start the rebuilding process from one of the darkest chapters in our history,” the Attorney General added.
If approved, the settlement will deliver funds to the participating states, local governments, affected individuals, and other parties who have previously sued the Sacklers or Purdue. A significant amount of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years, with the Sacklers paying $1.5 billion and Purdue paying 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. West Virginia will receive as much as $55 million from the settlement.
The money from the Purdue settlement will be distributed under the terms of the West Virginia First Memorandum of Understanding—to date the amount of settlements from opioid litigation within West Virginia totals more than $1 billion.
The $7.4 billion settlement in principle, the nation’s largest settlement to date with individuals responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis, comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a prior multistate settlement with the Sacklers and Purdue in June 2024. The settlement also marks the end of the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and bars them from selling opioids in the United States.
The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office sued Purdue in 2019, alleging the company created a false narrative to convince prescribers that opioids are not addictive and that its opioid products were safer than they actually were. The lawsuit contended Purdue’s sales representatives routinely claimed that OxyContin had no dose ceiling, despite assertions by federal regulators that OxyContin’s dose ceiling was evident by adverse reactions.
“West Virginia has suffered enough from the opioid epidemic, and we will continue to fight for the communities that have been shattered by this scourge,” Attorney General McCuskey said. “We have held those responsible accountable; our fight now is to see to it that that future generations will have the tools they need to prevent this crisis from ever happening again.”
Joining Attorney General McCuskey in securing the settlement in principle are the attorneys general of New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Virginia.
Additional Facts of the Case
- A board of trustees selected by participating states in consultation with the other creditors will 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.
- If approved, the settlement will make public more than 30 million documents related to Purdue and the Sacklers’ 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 $5.5 billion. In June 2024, the 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.
