Minnesota Announces Settlement Of Opioid Lawsuit
St Paul (KROC AM News) - Minnesota is expected to receive more than $50-million as its share from a settlement involving the opioid crisis.
Minnesota was one of 24 states that sued Purdue Pharma and the family that owned the pharmaceutical company that manufactured the opioid drug OxyContin.
The cost of the overall settlement is $4.3-billion. The money will be paid out over 9 years.
The settlement was announced Thursday by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. He says it also ”requires the release of more than 30 million documents, including attorney-client privileged communications about the original FDA approval of OxyContin and tactics to promote opioids. “
According to the Minnesota Department of Health Drug Overdose Dashboard, 4,821 Minnesotans died of opioid overdoses from 2000-2019. Preliminary reports show 654 opioid-involved deaths in Minnesota in 2020, a 59% increase from 2019.
Ellison issued this statement:
“No amount of money can make up for the pain that Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family caused families and communities in Minnesota and across the country. When it came to the Sackler family, they knew the damage they were causing — and they caused it anyway, all for the sake of personal profit and their own self-glorification.”
Ellison says the Sacklers knew as early as 1999 that Purdue’s powerful prescription opioids led to addiction — yet continued to personally direct and participate in misconduct that led to the opioid epidemic, by directing misrepresentations about the risks and benefits of long-term use of opioids that they knew were false or misleading.
Under the terms of the plan, the Sacklers will be permanently banned from the opioid business and Purdue will be sold or wound down by the end of 2024.
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