What Does the $7.4 Billion Purdue Pharma Settlement Mean For Connecticut? 

by Viktoria Sundqvist

The US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York this week approved Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan, which includes a $7.4 billion settlement between 55 attorneys general, Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler Family.

The settlement resolves litigation against Stamford-based Purdue and the Sacklers for their role in the creating and worsening of the opioid crisis across the country, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said.

Under the Sacklers’ ownership, Purdue made and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, fueling the largest drug crisis in the nation’s history, Tong said. The settlement ends the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and their ability to sell opioids in the United States. 

Sackler family members have denied wrongdoing or personal responsibility related to the opioid crisis. 

What does the settlement mean for Connecticut?

Connecticut’s state and local governments will receive as much as $64 million from this settlement over the next eight years, Tong said. However, he emphasized that “There is no amount of money, no amount of justice that will ever make whole the lives lost, and families destroyed.”

Most of the settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years, Tong said.

In the first payment, the Sacklers will pay $1.5 billion and Purdue will pay roughly $900 million, followed by $500 million after one year, an additional $500 million after two years, and $400 million after three years to be divided by the states.

What will the money be used for?

The settlement money is meant to support victims and their families as well as fund addiction treatment, prevention and recovery. Tong said he will urge that a significant portion of the early payments be used to fund a trust for direct support for survivors of the opioid epidemic and family members of victims and survivors.

“What we have today is a $7.4 billion promise to every victim, every family and every community that we will never stop fighting for them,” Tong said.

Connecticut’s Opioid Settlement Advisory Committee, composed of health professionals, individuals with lived experience and state and municipal leaders is responsible for allocating and accounting for opioid settlement funds, officials said.

What else is part of the settlement?

In addition to the monetary settlement and the Sacklers losing control of Purdue, more than 30 million documents related to Purdue and the Sacklers’ opioid business will be made public as part of the deal. Many of those documents had been previously excluded from disclosure.

Which states were part of this case?

Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in September 2019. Connecticut first sued Purdue and individual members of the Sackler family in 2019. Other states filed suits as well, and there have been several court rulings before this final settlement was reached, including the Supreme Court’s rejection of a $6 billion settlement. 

That paved way for a stronger deal, Tong said. Connecticut, along with New York, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia then led the bipartisan team that negotiated this final settlement, the attorney general said.