Purdue Pharma reaches new $7.4B opioid settlement deal. Here’s what Pennsylvania and Delaware stand to get

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Pennsylvania, Delaware and 13 other states have reached a new $7.4 billion national settlement deal with Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin, and the Sackler family, who are accused of fueling a national opioid addiction epidemic.

The new agreement comes less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a previous deal last June — one that granted members of the Sackler family immunity from future opioid lawsuits.

Under the new deal and terms, there will be no such shield. Other states, cities, communities and individuals still need to approve and sign on to the agreement before any payouts are finalized.

Attorneys general in the Delaware Valley called it a “bittersweet moment,” referring to the many lives lost to drug overdoses over the last two and a half decades.

More than 500,000 people in the United States have died from opioid-related drug overdoses since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdoses involved prescription opioids, illicitly manufactured pills, heroin and synthetic substances like fentanyl.

“No dollar amount could ever replace what has been lost due to the opioid epidemic, but this settlement will go a long way in bolstering treatment resources and helping Pennsylvanians achieve recovery,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement Thursday.

Pennsylvania stands to receive an estimated $212 million over 15 years from the new deal. Delaware would get about $27 million in an immediate lump-sum payment.

“These resources are especially precious here and now, as a small state that has suffered some of the worst harm in the nation,” Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings said in a statement. “I’m grateful to our team and to the attorneys general around the country who have stuck with us in the fight to hold the Sacklers accountable and bring help home.”

The new $7.4 billion settlement amount is about $1.4 billion more than the previous, and since rejected, deal originally brokered in 2021 in a New York bankruptcy court. The Sackler family will now pay $6.5 billion and Purdue Pharma will contribute another $900 million.

The Sacklers will relinquish control over the drug company, which will not be allowed to manufacture and sell opioids in the United States, according to the new terms.

The settlement money is intended to support opioid addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programs and community initiatives.

Many Delaware Valley families and parents whose children and other loved ones died from opioid overdoses have said that no amount of money would be enough for their losses, but said they wanted Purdue and the Sackers held accountable and to see money go toward helping other people and communities struggling with addiction today.