OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma set to dissolve after judge approves its
criminal sentence
[April 29, 2026]
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is set to be dissolved
and replaced by a company focused on the public good by the week's end,
as a massive legal settlement resolving thousands of lawsuits takes
effect.
A federal judge on Tuesday delivered a criminal sentence to the company
to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice probe — a last necessary step to
clear the way for the settlement.
U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo made her decision after listening
to hours of impact statements from people who lost loved ones or
struggled with addiction themselves and requested she reject the
negotiated sentence. While she didn't go that far, she said she
sympathized with people who bore the brunt of an epidemic linked to more
than 900,000 deaths in the U.S. since 1999.
“It was a purposeful, intentional and sophisticated crime scheme,” she
said.
The sentence calls for money, but no individual punishment
Purdue reached a deal with the Justice Department in 2020 to resolve
criminal and civil probes the company was facing.
The Stamford, Connecticut-based company admitted it did not have an
effective program to keep its powerful prescription painkillers from
being diverted to the black market, even though it told the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration that it did.
It also admitted it paid doctors through a speakers program to prescribe
the drugs and paid an electronic medical records company to send doctors
information on patients that encouraged more opioid prescriptions.
Steve Miller, who became chairman of Purdue’s board to guide the company
through the bankruptcy process and will cease to have that position when
the company is dissolved, addressed the hearing: “I deeply apologize on
behalf of the company for everything they did,” he said.
Only the company was charged — not individual employees or owners.
The guilty plea and civil settlement with the federal government
included $8.3 billion in forfeitures, fines and penalties. But the
federal government agreed in a negotiated settlement to collect just
$225 million in exchange for Purdue reaching a separate settlement of
the thousands of lawsuits it faced from state, local and Native American
tribal governments, along with other groups. Purdue's guilty plea did
not include restitution to victims.
After years of legal twists and turns — and $1 billion and counting in
legal and professional fees for the parties — the broader sentence was
approved by a bankruptcy judge in November.
‘We still deserve justice’
Arleo on Tuesday heard in person and by teleconference from people
impacted by opioids in several ways: mothers who lost sons to overdose,
a teenager born into withdrawal and whose mother later died, and people
who were prescribed OxyContin after accidents and spent years dealing
with addiction treatment and financial and emotional turmoil.
Many asked Arleo, who at times appeared to be on the verge of tears, to
reject the negotiated sentence.
Alexis Pluis, an upstate New York mother who lost a son to opioids in
2014, said she doesn’t expect to receive anything from the settlement
because she can’t locate 23-year-old medical records showing her son was
prescribed OxyContin.
“We still deserve justice,” she said. “And this isn’t it.”
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People rally outside a courthouse while a hearing for Purdue Pharma
takes place inside in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP
Photo/Seth Wenig)
 After listening to victims for about
five hours Tuesday, the judge told them that she would keep photos
of loved ones they lost to opioids in her chambers as long as she
serves as a judge. She had harsh words for the federal government
for approving OxyContin and not catching warning signs that it was
being abused, and for prosecutors for not bringing charges.
She noted that she has sentenced convicted drug dealers to prison
for selling OxyContin — and in those cases, federal prosecutors
routinely bring up that it was part of an epidemic.
“It is not lost on me that those who started the epidemic will not
serve a sentence,” she said.
Sackler family members to pay up to $7 billion
The settlement, which Purdue says could take effect as soon as
Friday, calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company
to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years. Most of the money is
to go to government entities to use to fight the opioid crisis.
Early in Tuesday's hearing, Arleo asked lawyers why Sackler family
members were being allowed to pay over 15 years. She was told it was
because they had to sell other businesses to secure the cash.
The judge offered a different reason. “They’d rather pay it from
future money than pay it now,” she said.
A Purdue lawyer said most of the lawsuits against the company over
opioids did not include specific financial claims. But the ones in
those that did totaled over $40 trillion in damages.
The settlement is among the largest in a series of settlements by
drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies in recent years — and the
only major one that includes payments for some individual victims or
their survivors.
Payments to individual victims are expected to range from about
$8,000 to about $16,000. Some people said Tuesday that they could be
rejected for payments because they can't locate decades-old
prescriptions to the pills. Arleo told Purdue bankruptcy lawyers to
ensure there are additional ways to prove they were harmed.
Overall, the settlements are worth more than $50 billion, and most
of the money is to be used to address the overdose epidemic.
Under the Purdue deal, members of the Sackler family will be
shielded from lawsuits over opioids from those who agree to the
payments. Family members received payments from the company totaling
about $10.7 billion from 2008 through 2018, but said nearly half
that amount was used to pay taxes on behalf of the business.
As part of the settlement, Purdue itself will cease to exist and be
replaced by a new company, Knoa Pharma, with a board appointed by
the states and an aim of combating the opioid crisis. Millions of
internal Purdue documents are to be made public.
Members of the Sackler family also have agreed not to object if
their names are taken off museums and other institutions they've
supported.
___
Associated Press video journalist Emily Wang contributed to this
article.
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