Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler family agreed to pay hundreds of millions to resolve the first of more than 1,600 lawsuits accusing the OxyContin maker of fueling the opioid crisis. The landmark deal could lay the groundwork for the resolution of the remaining litigation, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The drugmaker and its owners agreed to pay $270 million to settle the lawsuit brought against them in Oklahoma. The majority of the money will fund a national opioid addiction center in the state.
The deal allows Purdue Pharma to sidestep a May trial, the first trial scheduled among the opioid cases. The trial could have exposed the company to damaging testimony and a jury verdict. It also allows Purdue Pharma, which was considering bankruptcy, to avoid filing for bankruptcy for now.
Purdue Pharma now can focus on the rest of the lawsuits filed by more than 35 states and hundreds of municipalities.
The Oklahoma deal could speed up those settlement talks, Elizabeth Burch, a law professor at the University of Georgia, told the WSJ: "It's got to set off a feeding frenzy. There's blood in the water now."
The next trials are set to begin in Ohio in the fall, also the likely time for more settlements or even a bankruptcy filing, according to the report.