Purdue and Sackler family agree $7.4bn OxyContin settlement

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Purdue and Sackler family agree $7.4bn OxyContin settlement

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family who control it have agreed to pay up to $7.4bn (£6bn) to settle claims regarding its powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin.

The deal represents an increase of more than $1bn on a previous settlement

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, according to news agencies AP and Reuters.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5bn and Purdue to pay $900m.

Oxycontin, often an entryway into harder drugs like heroin, has been blamed for supercharging the deadly opioid crisis in America, and generated billions of dollars for the Sackler family.

“We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will deliver billions of dollars to compensate victims, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver treatment and overdose rescue medicines that will save lives,” Purdue said in a statement.

The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out, but AP says it is among the largest settlements reached in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for the deadly epidemic.

Under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal, according to AP.

Connecticut attorney General William Tong told Reuters that the settlement would help provide closure to victims of the opioid crisis.

“It’s not just about the money,” Tong said. “There is not enough money in the world to make it right.”

Since 1999, a few years after the drug became available, deaths from opioid overdoses surged to tens of thousands annually.

Court filings allege the Sackler family was long aware of the legal risks, and withdrew some $11bn from the company in the decade before its bankruptcy. They stashed much of the money overseas, while using some of it to pay company taxes, making recovery difficult.

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