The family behind Purdue Pharma, which started manufacturing the powerful painkiller OxyContin, is offering to increase their financial contribution in a bankruptcy settlement from $6 billion to $6.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. This revised proposal also includes a willingness to face some exposure to future litigation. According to the report, the settlement would provide compensation to all claimants from Purdue and would include a separate agreement to resolve opioid-related claims against the Sackler family members.
Claimants who don’t join the settlement would retain the option to pursue litigation against the Sacklers. This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a previous $6 billion settlement last year, which would have shielded the Sackler family from lawsuits over their alleged role in the opioid epidemic.
Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family have been at the center of thousands of lawsuits by state and local governments. These lawsuits accuse the company of fueling the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing of OxyContin, a powerful painkiller introduced in the mid-1990s.
In related news, consulting firm McKinsey & Company agreed to pay $650 million in December to settle a federal investigation into its work with Purdue. McKinsey had advised Purdue on strategies to boost OxyContin sales, including a controversial effort to “turbocharge” its marketing in 2013.
