Purdue Pharma Settlements: < $1 Billion For Victims But $60 Billion For Governments. Say What?!

By: Donald L Swanson

I’ve been following the Purdue Pharma fiasco from afar.  And I must confess to being mostly unaware of the details of what’s happened.

But here’s something I thought to be true:

• that the entire process was designed to achieve substantial payments of damages to individual victims and their families.

And I expected to be reading a bunch of bragging about all the value achieved for victims.

But, no.  To my shock, the following three items appear to be the unexpected reality, based upon information in the two sources summarized below.

First, individual victims will share an $850 million fund from the Sackler family, which will provide an estimated $8,000 to $16,000 for each victim.

Second, state and local governments will divide $60 billion of settlement funds, to be received from the Sackler family and from other parties.

Third, the same opioids will continue to be manufactured and sold for profit—but under the ownership and control of people other than the Sackler family.  

Say what?!

That can’t be right: < $1 million to victims and $60 billion to state and local governments?!

And the same opioids will continue to be manufactured, marketed and sold in the future?!

How could this happen?!

And where is accountability for:

• how governmental entities will spend the money; and
• how the opioids will be manufactured, marketed and sold for profit hereafter?

Source 1: Los Angeles Times Article

A Los Angeles Times article is dated November 15, 2025, and titled, “Purdue Pharma’s deal means money for some victims, end of Purdue company name. Here’s what to know.”

• Federal judge approved Purdue Pharma settlement requiring the Sackler family to contribute up to $7 billion and relinquish ownership of OxyContin.
• Unique to this settlement: About $850 million will directly compensate individual opioid victims and survivors, with payouts of $8,000 to $16,000 each.

There have been a series of other opioid settlements over the last decade worth about $50 billion. Most of that money, like most of the Purdue settlement, is required to be used to deal with the overdose and addiction epidemic.

But none of the other major cases has one feature that’s in Purdue’s: payouts for individual victims and their survivors. Purdue’s deal calls for about $850 million to go to victims, with more than $100 million of that dedicated to the care of children who were born suffering from withdrawal.

But the individual payouts are a frustration for victims. Those who qualify by showing they were prescribed OxyContin are expected to be able to collect around $8,000 or $16,000 each, depending on how long they took the powerful painkillers.

In response to last year’s Supreme Court ruling, the new settlement allows lawsuits against Sackler family members over opioids to be filed by entities that don’t opt into the deal

Source 2: Texas Attorney General Publication

Here’s what the Texas Attorney General says on this webpage titled, “Global Opioid Settlement.”

The recent settlement with Purdue and the Sackler family brings Texas’ combined share to $3.347 billion.

Distribution within Texas is governed by the Texas Term Sheet, an intrastate agreement between the state and litigating subdivisions, and administered by the Opioid Council:

• Funds must be used to support any of a wide variety of strategies to fight the opioid crisis;
• Separate provisions exist to compensate attorneys who have pursued opioid litigation on behalf of states and local governments; and
• The more subdivisions that join the settlements, the more money everyone in Texas will receive.

Nationally, the agreements reached with manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies provide for almost $60 billion in payments to states and local governments. Funding is distributed to states according to the allocation agreement reached among the Attorneys General.

Only subdivisions in participating states are eligible to participate in the agreements.

Conclusion

Sheesh!!  Is this how Congress intended the Bankruptcy Code to be utilized?

Granted, I’m mostly uninformed on the matter.  But still . . . the < $1 billion to victims and $60 billion to governments looks like a terrible result.

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