The family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP agreed to pay roughly $4.28 billion—a larger sum than previously promised—to resolve lawsuits accusing it of helping to fuel the opioid epidemic.
The payment from members of the Sackler family is part of a larger restructuring plan filed Monday night in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., that is intended to get Purdue out of chapter 11.
The plan is a critical milestone in the Stamford, Conn.-based drugmaker’s bankruptcy and the culmination of months of negotiation between members of the Sackler family and states, personal-injury plaintiffs and other creditors.
A group of around half of all U.S. states has repeatedly demanded more money from the Sackler family, a concession included in Monday’s plan. At the time of its September 2019 bankruptcy filing, the family had agreed to pay $3 billion with the promise of up to another $1.5 billion contingent on the sale of its international business. The new offer guarantees $4.28 billion, paid in installments over the next decade.
A key piece of the restructuring plan, which includes another $1.5 billion in cash and expected proceeds from OxyContin sales, is ensuring that the money will largely be spent to help abate the nation’s opioid crisis, rather than going into the general coffers of state and local government creditors.
