Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced that she, along with a bipartisan coalition of states and other parties, has reached a $7.4 billion settlement in principle with members of the Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma (Purdue), for their instrumental role in creating the opioid crisis. Up to $108 million of the settlement funds will be distributed to Massachusetts.
Under the Sacklers’ leadership, Purdue invented, manufactured, and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, perpetuating waves of addiction and overdose deaths across the Commonwealth and country. This settlement, if approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, will end the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and its ability to sell opioids in the U.S. and will deliver funding directly to communities over the next 15 years to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs. It marks the nation’s largest settlement to date with individuals responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis.
“The Sackler family will forever be remembered as a symbol of greed, profiting off pain to destroy countless lives across the Commonwealth and country,” said AG Campbell. “While this settlement cannot bring back the lives lost, it will bring in much-needed funds to begin to remediate the damage and ensure that the Sacklers can be held accountable for the lasting devastation they have caused. I am incredibly grateful to the families who turned their pain into purpose to inform our work in this space.”
"I’m grateful for the leadership of Attorney General Campbell and the team at the Attorney General’s Office, and I hope this long overdue resolution provides some comfort to the families. This litigation has always been about delivering justice for those who have lost loved ones at the hands of Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers,” said Governor Maura Healey. “This resolution puts an end to Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers’ involvement in this industry once and for all. It also makes sure the Sacklers can be held accountable for their actions, provides an unprecedented level of transparency into their business dealings to better ensure this never happens again, and delivers significant funding to support treatment, prevention and recovery efforts in Massachusetts.”
“This settlement is a win for families who have been fighting for justice, accountability, and transparency for years,” said Joanne Peterson, the founder and executive director of Learn to Cope and a member of the AG’s Family Advisory Council. “With the release of Purdue’s documents, the public will be able to see the atrocity of the Sacklers’ actions. Hopefully this will allow us to make sure that nothing like what took place at Purdue ever happens again.”
If approved, the settlement will deliver funds to the participating states, local governments, affected individuals, and other parties who have previously sued the Sacklers or Purdue.
A significant amount of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years, with the Sacklers paying $1.5 billion and Purdue paying nearly $900 million in the first payment, followed by the Sacklers paying $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years.
In addition to delivering $7.4 billion to address the opioid crisis, the settlement reflects the end of the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and prohibits them from selling opioids in the United States. A board of trustees to be selected by participating states in consultation with the other creditors will determine the future of the company. Until that time, Purdue will continue to be overseen by an independent monitor and will be prevented from lobbying or marketing opioids under the settlement.
If approved, the settlement would also make public more than 30 million documents related to Purdue and the Sacklers’ opioid business, including attorney-client privileged communications about the original FDA approval of OxyContin, tactics used to promote opioids, and documents relating to Purdue’s compliance with the 2007 consent judgments between Purdue and numerous states. These documents are expected to be added to the existing public document repository established by prior opioid settlements by this Office, which already contains millions of documents from other companies involved in the opioid crisis.
In 2018, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office filed the first lawsuit by any state against members of the Sackler family and other Purdue executives. The suit alleged that Purdue and its executives deceived doctors and the public to get more people on addictive opioids, at higher doses, for longer periods of time. This conduct led to the suffering, overdose, and death of thousands of Massachusetts residents.
After Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019, a court put all litigation involving Purdue, including the Massachusetts lawsuit, on hold.
In 2021, the Commonwealth and a coalition of several other states announced a settlement with Purdue and the Sacklers that was eventually approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. That settlement would have required the family to pay more than $4.3 billion, and Massachusetts would have received up to $90 million. In March 2022, nine additional states settled with the Sacklers, and secured up to an additional $1.675 billion to help abate the opioid crisis nationwide.
In June 2024, the United States Supreme Court invalidated the bankruptcy settlement with the Sacklers, holding that they were not entitled to a blanket shield from liability. Notably, today’s settlement does not offer the Sacklers any such automatic immunity but instead requires the Sacklers to secure the releases of parties with claims against them.
The Sackler family members included in today’s settlement are the eight heirs of Purdue founders Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, who served on the board of Purdue: Richard, Kathe, Mortimer Jr., Ilene, David, and Theresa Sackler; and the estates of Jonathan and Beverly Sackler. In addition, their associated trusts, advisers, and most of their children and heirs are also included.
Joining Attorney General Campbell in securing the settlement in principle are the attorneys general of New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In Massachusetts, this matter was handled by Deputy Division Chief Ethan Marks, Assistant Attorneys General Gregory Hardy, Lisa Gaulin, Nina Cohen, and Emiliano Mazlen, Analyst Philipp Nowak, and Paralegal Gaëlle Bouaziz of the AG’s Health Care Division, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Lashof-Sullivan of the AG’s Consumer Protection Division, Director of Investigations Marlee Leo of the Civil Investigations Division, Deputy Bureau Chief Mary Freeley of the AG’s Health Care and Fair Competition Bureau, and Deputy Attorney General Sara Cable.
Original source can be found here.