The penalty was agreed to in a 2020 pact to resolve federal civil and criminal investigations Purdue was facing, after the company pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges in November 2020. Under the broader settlement, members of the Sackler family who own Purdue are required to pay up to $7 billion to state, local, and Native American tribal governments, some individual victims, and others. 8 billion in civil liabilities.
Portions of that money are considered part of the broader settlement, with the federal government receiving a small slice, and most of the funds are to go to government entities to use to fight the opioid crisis. This settlement is among the largest in a series of settlements by drugmakers, wholesalers, and pharmacies in recent years, and the only major one that includes payments for some individual victims or their survivors. S.
Drug Enforcement Administration that it did. The company also admitted that it paid doctors through a speakers program to prescribe the drugs and paid an electronic medical records company to send doctors information on patients that encouraged more opioid prescriptions. Under the Purdue deal, if the judge signs off, other penalties will not be collected in return for Purdue settling the other lawsuits, and the settlement, approved by another judge last year, could take effect May 1.
Members of the Sackler family would be shielded from lawsuits over opioids from those who agree to the payments, and Purdue itself would cease to exist, replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, which would operate for the public benefit and have a board appointed by the states.