By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON — West Virginia could receive up to $53 million over the next nine years from a proposed settlement between the Sackler family — the owners of opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma — and attorneys general in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey announced Monday that attorneys general from across the nation have signed on to a settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family for more than $7.4 billion. Local governments will be asked to also sign on to the settlement agreement subject to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
“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 statement. “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.”
In January, McCuskey announced that a 14-state coalition secured a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. Of that, the Sackler family agreed to pay upwards of $6.5 billion over 15 years, with Purdue Pharma paying approximately $900 million subject to approval by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
