Purdue Pharma, maker of the prescription opioid OxyContin, agreed on Wednesday to plead guilty to criminal charges over the company’s role in the nation’s opioid crisis, The New York Times reports. The company faces $8.3 billion in penalties.
Members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, have agreed to pay $225 million in civil penalties.
The settlement, announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, could hasten a resolution of thousands of lawsuits brought by states, cities, counties and tribes against the company for its role in the opioid crisis, the article notes.
Because Purdue sought bankruptcy court protection in the midst of these lawsuits, it is unlikely the company will pay anything close to the $8.3 billion negotiated by the Department of Justice, according to the New York Times.
The settlement with Purdue Pharma is separate from thousands of opioid-related lawsuits against other drug makers, drug distributors and pharmacy chains. Those cases are still pending in federal and state courts.