Supreme Court rejects nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, AP Explains

The Supreme Court rejected a nationwide settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the opioid Oxycontin. The case would have provided billions of dollars in treatment for opioid addiction and would have required the Sackler family, members of the Sackler family who owned the company, to pay $6 billion. But the settlement would have freed the Sacklers from any other lawsuits regarding Oxycontin. The decision came in a settlement that had been painstakingly negotiated by state and local officials and victims of the opioid epidemic, and it would have helped resolve a bankruptcy that had been declared by Purdue Pharma. In A5 Four decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that federal law does not permit people who are not themselves declaring bankruptcy from getting a shield from civil lawsuits. And in this case, the members of the Sackler family had not themselves declared bankruptcy. The agreement that had been hammered out was pretty much in its final stages. It was really just awaiting the Supreme Court's up or down vote. Now that the court has rejected the agreement, it's pretty much back to the drawing board. And it's unclear what will happen next, although lawyers involved in the case say they expect negotiations to resume.