OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and family members who own the company have agreed to pay up to $7.4bn in a new settlement to end lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller, New York Attorney General Letitia James says.

The deal announced on Thursday represents an increase of more than $1bn over a previous settlement that was rejected last year by the United States Supreme Court. The settlement was agreed to by Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family members who own the company and lawyers representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis.

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The Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5bn and Purdue $900m.

It’s among the largest settlements reached over the past several years in a series of lawsuits by local, state and Native American tribal governments and other plaintiffs seeking to hold opioid-making companies responsible for a deadly addiction epidemic. Aside from the Purdue deal, others worth about $50bn have been announced – and most of the money is required to be used to stem the crisis.

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The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out. An arm of the US Department of Justice opposed the previous settlement, even after every state got on board, and took the battle to the Supreme Court. But under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal.

“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,” Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue said in a statement.

Kara Trainor, a Michigan woman in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after receiving a prescription for OxyContin to deal with a back injury 23 years ago. She praised the deal.

“Everything in my life is shaped by a company that put profits over human lives,” she said.

Joining James in securing the settlement in principle are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

Future lawsuits

Under the new proposal, members of the Sackler family would contribute up to $6.5bn over 15 years and give up ownership of Purdue, which would become a new entity with its board appointed by states and others who sued the company. Purdue is to pay $900m. A portion of the money is also to go to victims of the opioid crisis or their survivors.

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The family’s contribution will be higher than the $6bn agreed to under the previous version. The Supreme Court blocked that agreement because it protected members of the wealthy family from civil lawsuits over OxyContin even though the family members themselves were not in bankruptcy. The new agreement protects family members from lawsuits only from entities that agree to the settlement.

There’s been mediation seeking a new deal since the court’s ruling was delivered. If one is not reached, it could open the floodgates to lawsuits against Sackler family members.

A court order blocking lawsuits against Sackler family members is set to expire on Friday, but the parties are asking a US bankruptcy court judge to keep that in place through February to iron out the final details. The deadline has already been extended several times.

A few governments, including the states of Maryland and Washington, have routinely opposed the extensions.

The new settlement could bring to a close a chapter in a long legal saga over the toll of the opioid crisis, which some experts assert began after the blockbuster painkiller OxyContin hit the market in 1996. Since then, opioids have been linked to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the US. The deadliest stretch has been since 2020 when the illicit synthetic opioid fentanyl was found to be a factor in more than 70,000 deaths annually.

Members of the Sackler family have been cast as villains and have seen their name removed from art galleries and universities that they have funded around the world because of their role in the privately held company. They’ve continued to deny claims of any wrongdoing.

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Collectively, family members have been estimated to be worth billions more than they’d contribute in the settlement, but much of the wealth is in offshore accounts and might be impossible to access through lawsuits.

Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis. Among the claims are that the company targeted doctors with a message that the addiction risk of OxyContin was low.