Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, have offered to settle the more than 2,000 lawsuits against them for their role in the opioid crisis for $10 billion to $12 billion. The sum includes $3 billion from the Sackler family fortune. The deal was reportedly discussed last week by Purdue’s lawyers and includes a plan for Purdue to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy before restructuring into a for-profit “public benefit trust” that would allegedly serve the many plaintiffs suing the company. The Sackler family would relinquish ownership of Purdue under the deal.
The news came out the same day as a landmark ruling in Oklahoma that found Johnson & Johnson helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis. The company was ordered to pay over half a billion dollars. Purdue Pharma was also sued by Oklahoma but settled before any trial took place.