The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a controversial nationwide opioid settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would have have provided billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic while shielding members of the Sackler family, who own the company, from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.
After deliberating more than six months, the justices in a 5-4 vote blocked an agreement hammered out with state and local governments and victims. The Sacklers would have contributed up to $6 billion and given up ownership of the company, but retained billions more. The agreement provided that the Connecticut-based company would emerge from bankruptcy as a different entity, with its profits used for treatment and prevention.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong praised the decision in a statement Thursday.
“This decision is a definitive rebuke of the Sackler family’s abuse of the bankruptcy code," Tong said. "The U.S. Supreme Court got it right — billionaire wrongdoers should not be allowed to shield blood money in bankruptcy court."
Tong said the Court's decision will send the matter back to bankruptcy court, where he expects the matter to re-enter mediation.
Connecticut filed suit against Purdue and members of the Sackler family in 2019, alleging the company and family peddled falsehoods to push patients toward its opioids, reaping massive profits while opioid addiction skyrocketed, Tong said.
OxyContin first hit the market in 1996, and Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of it is often cited as a catalyst of the nationwide opioid epidemic, with doctors persuaded to prescribe painkillers with less regard for addiction dangers.
The drug and the Stamford, Connecticut-based company became synonymous with the crisis, even though the majority of pills being prescribed and used were generic drugs. Opioid-related overdose deaths have continued to climb, hitting 80,000 in recent years. Most of those are from fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.
The Purdue Pharma settlement would have ranked among the largest reached by drug companies, wholesalers and pharmacies to resolve epidemic-related lawsuits filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments and others. Those settlements have totaled more than $50 billion.
Connecticut Public's Patrick Skahill and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
