Purdue Pharma, the embattled maker of the drug OxyContin, finds itself close to settling some of the thousands of lawsuits filed against it for the company's role in fueling the ongoing opioid epidemic.
The settlement forces the Sackler family to give up control of the Stamford, Connecticut-based business, according to the Associated Press, while the company will pay up to $12 billion over time.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovic stated that the deal was the fastest way to help communities hit hard by the crisis while also increasing the payout initially offered by the defendant.
The pharmaceutical giant had been facing lawsuits from thousands of state, local, and Native American tribal governments. About 2,000 governments have agreed to the tentative deal, but about half of the states have not signed on.
"The families who were hurt by Purdue and the Sacklers have spoken loud and clear that this case demands real accountability, and I will continue to fight for that," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who did not agree to the terms, wrote in a statement according to WBUR. “It’s critical that all the facts come out about what this company and its executives and directors did, that they apologize for the harm they caused, and that no one profits from breaking the law."
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal also refrained from endorsing the settlement saying on Twitter, “New Jersey will continue to pursue all available legal options against those responsible. And if Purdue cannot pay for the harm it inflicted, the Sacklers will.”
The potential settlement comes two weeks after Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay Oklahoma $572 million for its part in spreading addictive painkillers, a landmark first court decision during the opioid crisis that still fell short of the $17.2 billion the state was pursuing.
In March, Purdue and the Sacklers settled with the Sooner State for $272 million to pay for treatment, addiction research, and the state's legal fees.
The Tony Awards on Sunday lured 4.85 million viewers to CBS, its largest broadcast audience in six years. CBS says Monday that Nielsen data shows the telecast — hosted by “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo — scored a 38% increase over last year’s 3.53 million viewers. That’s the largest audience for the Tonys since 2019, when the telecast that year nabbed 5.4 million viewers and “Hadestown” was crowned best new musical. The latest version also had to compete with the second game of the NBA Finals, between the Thunder and Pacers,
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Six weeks before UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel last December, Luigi Mangione mused about rebelling against “the deadly, greed fueled health insurance cartel” and expressed that killing the executive “conveys a greedy bastard that had it coming."
Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson once clashed on the court in the 2001 NBA Finals, but now the basketball legends are joining forces to revive the Reebok brand they helped make iconic.
Midea is voluntarily recalling about 1.7 million of its popular U and U+ Smart air conditioners because pooled water in the units may not drain fast enough, leading to mold growth.
