Purdue Pharma agrees to $270 million settlement with Oklahoma

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and members of the wealthy Sackler family that own the company reached a 270 million U.S. dollars settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the state of Oklahoma accusing the drugmaker of fueling an opioid abuse epidemic.

The settlement unveiled by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter on Tuesday was the first to result from a wave of lawsuits accusing Purdue of deceptively marketing painkillers, helping create a deadly crisis sweeping the United States.

Hunter's 2017 lawsuit was set to go to a jury on May 28 in what would have been the first trial from roughly 2,000 lawsuits filed in federal and state courts against Purdue and other drugmakers.

Hunter alleged Purdue, Johnson Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd engaged in deceptive marketing that downplayed the addiction risk from opioids while overstating their benefits, contributing to the epidemic.

Opioids, including prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl, were involved in a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017 in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The addiction crisis facing our state and nation is a clear and present danger," Hunter said. Of more than 3,000 Oklahomans admitted to hospitals last year for drug overdoses that they survived, 80 percent involved prescription opioids, he said.

The companies deny wrongdoing. Purdue has argued that U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved labels for its opioids carried warnings about the risk of abuse and misuse associated with them.

The settlement came after Purdue's chief executive this month said the company was weighing filing for bankruptcy protection to address potential liabilities from the lawsuits, a move that Reuters had reported earlier.

Companies facing mounting litigation often consider a bankruptcy filing to halt lawsuits and negotiate with plaintiffs in one federal court proceeding. Hunter said the bankruptcy threat factored into the settlement talks.

He said Purdue was convinced to settle after being presented with an option that provides for nearly 200 million U.S. dollars for establishing a center at Oklahoma State University (OSU) that would take a national approach toward treating addiction.

(CGTN)