Purdue and Sackler family agree to $7.4bn opioid settlement with US states.

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The Sackler family and their co-founder, opioid maker Purdue Pharma, have agreed to jointly pay $7.4 billion to settle debt for their role in the opioid crisis, ending months of negotiations after a previous deal collapsed.

This latest settlement, which still needs bankruptcy court approval, is $1.4 billion more than the previous settlement between the parties. The new settlement was reached among more than 12 US states and other individuals who have filed lawsuits against the company.

The drugmaker first filed for bankruptcy in 2019 to rule out hundreds of lawsuits over its role in New York federal court. The opioid crisis. Under the deal, the Sackler family will pay $6.5bn over the next 15 years. Purdue It will pay $900mn.

“Families in New York and across the country are suffering the immense pain and loss caused by the opioid crisis,” New York Attorney General Leticia James, one of the officials who helped broker the deal, said Thursday. “While no amount of money will ever fully repair the damage they’ve caused, this massive influx of money will bring resources to communities in need so we can heal.”

It is one of the largest Purdue settlements to emerge from the U.S. opioid crisis, which has caused more than 600,000 deaths since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An earlier $6 billion settlement between the Sackler family and creditors — largely negotiated during the pandemic — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer. The settlement is based on shielding family members from future lawsuits, which the high court said is impermissible without the family members themselves filing for bankruptcy.

The new agreement is structured so that Sacklers are not automatically protected from lawsuits, but victims must agree not to take further legal action to seek payment, according to a statement from the New York attorney general.

The Supreme Court’s decision has lawyers and companies scrambling to decide how to resolve so-called “mass torts,” where corporate product liability claims involve thousands of victims and cost hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.

The money committed by the Sacklers and Purdue will be used to fund opioid addiction treatment and recovery programs over the next 15 years, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said.

For many victims, Sackler family members are no longer allowed to sell opioids in the U.S. as part of the deal, and Purdue’s ownership has ended.

Sackler’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.