Individuals who filed personal injury claims against Purdue Pharma related to its opioid painkiller OxyContin are expected to receive as much as $48,000 under the drugmaker's bankruptcy plan filed March 15, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The payouts will depend on the severity of each individual's injury or addiction. A preliminary analysis projected that those who qualify for the most severe injuries will receive between $16,000 and $48,000 and the least severe cases would get $3,500, the Journal reported March 16. Administrators would determine each person's eligibility for a payout and their rate of severity of injuries through a point system, the plan said.
More than 100,000 personal injury claims related to OxyContin have been filed against Purdue Pharma.
The payouts would come from a special trust of $700 million to $750 million, according to court documents, the Journal reported.
Injuries that will be covered include overdose deaths, addiction and babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, which is caused by exposure to opioids in the womb.
A group of 24 U.S. state attorneys general said March 16 that Purdue Pharma's plan is an improvement of an earlier deal from 2019, but it "falls short of the accountability that families and survivors deserve," the Journal reported.
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