Opioid Settlement Encourages Sale of More Opioids, Critics Say
- Moral cost of proposed Purdue deal is too high for some states
- Company’s offers $10 billion to resolve 1,000 government suits
Purdue Pharma LP has proposed a settlement in bankruptcy court that could provide as much as $10 billion to help U.S. communities cope with the opioid epidemic. But for some states, the moral cost of accepting the deal is too high because it relies on even more sales of OxyContin, the highly addictive painkiller that helped create the public-health crisis.
The settlement offer calls for Purdue’s owners, the Sackler family, to pay at least $3 billion over seven years, with another $1 billion from current Purdue assets. The family, which amassed a $13 billion fortune, also would give up ownership of the company to a trust controlled by the states, counties and cities that sued Purdue, generating billions of dollars in additional income to be spent on treatment programs and law enforcement.