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West Virginia has joined 54 other states and U.S. territories in finalizing a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, which owns the company.
In announcing the settlement on Monday, Attorney General JB McCuskey said the Sackler family has announced its plan to proceed with the settlement, which stems from the pharmaceutical giant’s role in manufacturing and selling OxyContin — an addictive painkiller that fueled the nationwide opioid crisis.
“The Sacklers aggressively marketed their drugs to communities like ours, without a care in the world about the lives they were destroying, only focused on their bottom line,” McCuskey said in a press release. “The settlement holds the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma accountable for the pain they’ve caused our state and our country. Now, hopefully, we can start to recover and turn the page on the opioid crisis.”
Local governments across the country will now be asked to join the settlement contingent on bankruptcy court proceedings.
West Virginia, though, will get its funds – as much as $53 million – on an accelerated scheduled over the next nine years. That’s due to the “disproportionate impact” opioids have had on the state, McCuskey said.
That brings the total amount received by West Virginia from companies that helped to fuel a devastating epidemic to more than $1 billion, according to McCuskey’s office.