Sacklers willing to pay more to settle Purdue Pharma opioid lawsuits, mediator says
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma are willing to kick in more money — up to $6 billion total — to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids as the company tries to work out a deal with state attorneys general who torpedoed an earlier settlement.
The offer of extra cash was detailed in a report filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court by a federal mediator who asked the court to let her have until the end of the month to broker a new settlement.
Under the latest proposal, the Sacklers would contribute between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, an increase from the $4.3 billion they had agreed to in the original bankruptcy settlement. The last of the money would not be paid out for 18 years, and the exact amount would depend on how much the family would make from selling its international drug companies.
The additional money would have to be used to combat a crisis that has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades. Part of it would be controlled by the eight states, joined by the District of Columbia, that objected to the original settlement last year even when other states agreed to it.
In exchange, members of the family would be shielded from current and future opioid-related lawsuits. That protection was contained in the original bankruptcy settlement but prompted the objecting states to file an appeal that ultimately succeeded, leading to the current round of negotiations.
The objecting states said the earlier amount of $4.5 billion did not go far enough to hold accountable members of a family that made billions from the sale of OxyContin.
Advocates for opioid victims and their families were concerned about where the additional money would go. Ryan Hampton, an advocate for people with opioid use disorder, said it did not appear that the $750 million set aside for payments to victims of the crisis and their families would increase under the latest proposal.
"The government's pot will continue to get larger as additional settlement negotiations may continue, yet there's no increase for direct payments to families and survivors," Hampton said. "It's dead wrong and unjust."
According to the report by the mediator, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Shelley Chapman, any new deal would be contingent on having all the holdout states and the District of Columbia agree to it. She said a "supermajority" have agreed so far, but did not list which are still holding out.
State attorneys general offices contacted Friday by The Associated Press declined comment or did not respond. A spokeswoman for one branch of the Sackler family also declined to comment, while a representative for the other side did not respond.
In a statement, Purdue said it remains "focused on achieving our goal of providing urgently needed funds to the American people for opioid crisis abatement."
Earlier this week, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Drain agreed to keep any opioid lawsuits against Purdue and the Sacklers on hold through March 3 to buy more time for reaching a settlement.
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In December of 2021 a judge refused to accept the $4.3 billion dollar settlement, that is why they are back at it.
commit a huge crime, get rich, get caught, and then give back a fraction of the ill gotten gains to avoid jail time. is this a great country to be wealthy in or what?
"The government's pot will continue to get larger as additional settlement negotiations may continue, yet there's no increase for direct payments to families and survivors," Hampton said. "It's dead wrong and unjust."
They're not victims, same could be said of fentanyl users
Greg,
This drug was designed to be addictive by Purdue Pharma and the doctors who prescribed it had no idea. It takes some people no more than 3 days of use to become addicted. Fentanyl is a more complex issue. It is used by drug dealers as an additive. It is also used legally as a pain killer. It was never designed to be addictive, but all opioids are, even man-made ones like fentanyl.
It's worse than that. They pushed for pain to be seen as the "fifth vital sign", and lobbied for hospital reimbursements to be tied to patient satisfaction, including satisfaction regarding pain control.
They told doctors it wouldn't be addictive, then used lobbyists to make it financially impossible for hospitals to survive if they didn't prescribe it. They knew full well that hospitals rely on Medicare payments, and used their influence to have those payments withheld, or at least threatened to be withheld, if opioids weren't prescribed, even against doctors' better judgment.
And this was taught in med schools, dental schools, and in continuing education. We were told in dental school to err on the side of believing the patient needed pain control if they said they did, and that it was borderline unethical to do otherwise. I attended a CE course in which the lecturer warned us that if we didn't completely control a patient's pain for a musculoskeletal disorder, like TMJ dysfunction, that they would not heal properly, because they would guard against pain while functioning and wouldn't regain full range of motion. This, BTW, was a lecturer from Walter Reed Medical Center - not generally a facility that I would expect caters to wimps.
It was pervasive.
on that, i MUST DISAGREE, ! perhaps some were unaware at first due to LIES by Perdue, but it was clear to ANYBODY, and sure as shit sho;ld have been clear to the Doctors that this drug was way addictive
They were told that the delivery system prevented patients from getting the euphoria that addicts craved. The extended release was marketed as protective against addiction.
A coworker once gave me an oxy for my knee. It did absolutely nothing for the pain. I got more relief from a good ole aspirin tab.
oxy is a bad trip man...
In my case, it was a total waste of time.
My only son died in 2017 from a perforated large intestine secondary to severe opioid induced constipation. I wish I had known about that lawsuit earlier. Doubt there is anything I can do now.
Sorry to hear that, Ed.
yea, i had thought about entering this suit for one, but im not good at accepting handouts, and it would have been for they, , not i, and these bottom feedeers truly R deserved of paying this and MUCH MUCH MORE ! Aren't these Low Life Scumbnags who after handsomely rewarding scum bag doctors, who were compensated weell for prescribing a totally addictive LIE, and they did aboutI IT. Thern, after creating the Damn epidemic, thatb sent so many to the cheaper Heroin, where MANY DIED , as they could not afford an addiction theynreally didnt seem coming for they, after all, it was THEIR DOCTOR whom prescribed this super addictyive drug, not some pusher on the street, even though that is wjhewre so ,many woiund up.! Finally when This family then was caught, i be;lieve, trying to hide Billions due to the i,mpendimng law suit. TYhis is the same FCKN company thjat open up another CASH COW known as REHABILITATION CENBTERS , where they gouged US All EVEWN MORE ! Crerate the addicts and profit ridiculously , then make more hand over fist off ALL OF US, by profiting yet agaqin off the addicts that just wanted to get off of what this company had gotten them Hooked upon and the Hell so many were force to endure, and that was only if they surviuved! . May they ALL ROT IN HELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really sorry to hear about your loss, Ed.
Sandy and Perry are correct, as i am also sorry for the loss of your son, as my son and i also suffered a major loss, from this profit driven MESS, but in a slightly different manner, and due to my anger at these bassturds, i flew right over your heartfelt admission that i can in various ways , oh so relate. Mine is a rather long private story, but i oh so would love to get my hands on these greedy murdering scumbagz, asz they infuriate me !!!!!
I honestly think there should be more set aside for the families of lost loved ones, if the settlement is going to be bigger. Families left to raise the children of those who have died, or who are not fit to raise their kids themselves, need help.