A multistate agreement regarding ongoing legal action against members of the Sackler family and their former company, Purdue Pharma, which made OxyContin, is nearing fruition.

The agreement, announced Thursday, would require the Sackler family to pay $6.5 billion over the next 15 years and an additional nearly $900 million from Purdue Pharma following its emergence from bankruptcy protection. Purdue Pharma’s lobbying and marketing efforts will also be limited and monitored as part of the settlement. Likewise, “The Sackler’s control of Purdue Pharma will end, and they are restricted from selling opioids in the United States,” the press release highlighted.

If Utah were to enter into the agreement, the state is set to receive $57 million, which would be allocated to both state and local efforts aimed at reducing the effects of the opioid crisis on Utah residents.

The proposed agreement would progress in healing communities marred by drug addiction and settle lawsuits across the country accusing both Richard Sackler and his former company of being detrimental to the increase in opioid harm in Utah and across the nation.

“Too many Utahns have been harmed by the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma’s disregard for human life. My office has traveled across the country on behalf of Utah families to ensure that these families receive justice, and we have collaborated with other state attorneys general to make this settlement possible. After I have reviewed the final written settlement, I anticipate Utah will join it, thereby ensuring that Utah families see the justice they deserve, and will encourage other states to do so as well,” said Attorney General Derek Brown in the press release.

So far, the attorneys general of Utah, New York, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia, along with other states, have collaborated to move the agreement forward, per the release.

“The opioid epidemic has ravaged families and communities across Utah, leaving a trail of heartbreak and loss. Too many lives have been stolen, and too many families have been shattered,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, per the press release. “This settlement will not bring back those we’ve lost, but it will provide critical resources to help those struggling with addiction and prevent future tragedies. We are committed to using these funds to support treatment, prevention, and education efforts and to build a brighter, healthier future for all Utahns.”

A report by the Utah Department of Health and Human Services published this month found that drug overdose deaths in the state remain at an alarmingly high rate. Though death rates peaked in 2015, the last 10 years have not seen much change, with 2023 seeing the highest number of drug-related deaths than ever before.

Fentanyl has become the “most common” drug involved in overdose deaths, accounting for 47.9% of deaths in 2023, per DHHS.

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As of 2022, the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner reported drug overdose and poisoning as the leading cause of death in Utah — from 2017 to 2022, 1,848 deaths were drug-related.

Last August, the Utah Division of Consumer Protection announced continued litigation against the Sackler family and its defendants for marketing “OxyContin in Utah as less prone to abuse and addiction than other painkillers, contributing to the public health crisis,” the Deseret News previously reported. “The company and Richard Sackler are also accused of providing $200,000 in gifts and payments to Utah prescribers between 2013 and 2017, employing 186 sales representatives in Utah, and making direct marketing visits to 5,000 prescribers in their medical offices.”

Four months later, former Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes filed a complaint for the State of Utah and Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection, suing UnitedHealth Group and Express Scripts — and its subdivisions — for catalyzing the opioid epidemic “through powerful positions as intermediaries between manufacturers, pharmacies, insurance companies, payers and patients.”

Utah Department of Commerce Executive Director Margaret Woolley Busse said in Thursday’s press release, “Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family caused immense harm and innumerable lives lost through their deceptive marketing and greed. The Utah Department of Commerce, through the Division of Consumer Protection, never stopped its work to hold Purdue and the Sacklers accountable for what they have done and the devastation they have caused.”

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