Attorney General Ellison signs on to $7.4B Purdue opioid settlement

Joins all 55 attorneys general in approving settlement with manufacturer of blockbuster opioid Oxycontin, Sackler family

Minnesota to receive additional $59M from settlement, bringing total state will receive in settlements with opioid companies to $624 million

June 23, 2024 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that he has joined all 55 attorneys general, representing all eligible states and U.S. territories, in signing on to a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of blockbuster opioid Oxycontin and other opioids, and its owners, the Sackler family. This settlement in principle is the nation’s largest settlement to date with individuals responsible for the opioid crisis and ends the Sacklers’ control of Purdue and their ability to sell opioids in the United States. It would resolve the states’ and territories’ civil litigation against Purdue and the Sacklers for their role in the creating and worsening the opioid crisis across the country. Now that all states and territories have signed on to the settlement, local governments across the country will be asked to join the settlement, contingent on bankruptcy court proceedings.

Minnesota’s share of this settlement will total approximately $59 million over 15 years. According to the terms of an agreement the Attorney General’s Office reached with Minnesota cities and counties in December 2021, 75% of opioid settlement funds Minnesota receives are allocated to city and county governments and 25% of funds are allocated to the State. The agreement also details how the funds can be used to combat the opioid crisis, including detailed programs and strategies focused on treatment, prevention, and harm reduction. 

With the Purdue settlement, Attorney General Ellison’s Office has obtained settlements worth nearly $624 million for Minnesota local governments and the State of Minnesota from companies that helped fuel the opioid epidemic.

"Even among the heartless and immoral people that fueled the opioid epidemic, the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma’s callous disregard for the lives of their fellow Americans stands out,” said Attorney General Ellison. "My blood boils when I think about how Purdue and the Sacklers lined their pockets by aggressively pushing opioids onto the American people while downplaying their addictiveness. While no amount of money can undo the suffering they have caused, it is important to hold these bad actors accountable, and I am glad the settlement money we won from them will go toward addiction treatment and prevention. May the Sackler name continue to live in infamy.”

Under the Sacklers’ ownership, Purdue made and aggressively marketed opioid products for decades, fueling the largest drug crisis in the nation’s history. In 2019, Attorney General Ellison’s office amended its 2018 lawsuit against Purdue Pharma to include the Sacklers as named individual defendants. Sackler family members controlled Purdue at all times and were intimately involved in directing Purdue’s deceptive and fraudulent marketing tactics and driving strategies to sell more and more opioids — most notably the blockbuster opioid Oxycontin, from which Purdue made at $35 billion — despite fully knowing the risks to Minnesotans. The amended complaint revealed that the Sacklers knew about Oxycontin’s risk of addiction and abuse since at least 1999 but continued to market it aggressively. The Sacklers personally paid themselves billions in profit while disparaging addicts as “criminals” and “scum”— then profited from addiction treatment as an “attractive market” that they acknowledged was “naturally linked” to the crisis they created.