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Va. to receive $107.4M in updated opioids settlement

Sackler family, Purdue have pledged $7.4B in federal agreement

Kate Andrews //January 23, 2025//

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Va. to receive $107.4M in updated opioids settlement

Sackler family, Purdue have pledged $7.4B in federal agreement

Kate Andrews //January 23, 2025//

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Virginia stands to receive up to $107.4 million in a multistate proposed by OxyContin producer and its owners, the family, Virginia announced Thursday.

The defendants in the federal case have offered to pay $7.4 billion to 14 states to settle claims that under the leadership of the Sacklers, Purdue “invented, manufactured and aggressively marketed products for decades, fueling waves of addiction and overdose deaths across the country,” according to Miyares’ statement. In the agreement, members of the Sackler family would pay $6.5 billion, and Purdue would pay $900 million, and the Sacklers would no longer own the company, which filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after Purdue was sued thousands of times.

Much of the settlement money would go toward funding opioid addiction treatment and prevention programs over the next 15 years.

However, now the decision will go to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned an earlier settlement agreement in June 2024. The high court rejected that $4.3 billion settlement, in which Virginia expected to receive $80 million, in part because the agreement would have protected the Sackler family from future civil liability claims. The new settlement does not have that protection.

Although opioid addiction is a problem nationwide, Virginia has played a significant role in the lawsuits against Purdue and McKinsey & Co., which agreed in December 2024 to pay the federal government $650 million in a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Global management firm McKinsey was under investigation for its role in advising Purdue on how to increase sales of OxyContin, a brand name of oxycodone.

In that case, the ‘s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) collaborated with U.S. attorney’s offices in the Western District of Virginia and the District of Massachusetts, and a former McKinsey senior partner pleaded guilty after being charged with obstruction of justice in Abingdon’s federal court.

In 2018, under former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, the state sued Purdue and related entities in Tazewell County Circuit Court, claiming that the company violated the Virginia Consumer Protection Act in marketing with “misrepresentations and deception regarding the risks of addiction and benefits of prescription opioids,” Miyares said in the announcement. The following year, 2019, the state included members of the Sackler family in the . This settlement, if approved, will resolve those claims.

In addition to Virginia, the other states involved in the settlement are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia.

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