The nationwide opioid litigation movement reached its first major settlement

The public still won't hear details regarding Purdue Pharma's push to market the painkiller OxyContin. Testimony from members the company's founding family, the Sacklers, won't happen either.

The pharmaceutical giant reached a $270 million dollar settlement on Tuesday with the state of Oklahoma, and legal experts argue that the settlement could help set a floor amount for other lawsuits filed against Purdue and the Sacklers, The Wall Street Journal reports. Oklahoma's attorney general claimed that Purdue's aggressive marketing tactics for OxyContin and other prescription painkillers helped fuel America's opioid crisis; the two sides reached the agreement just two months before the scheduled trial.

The New York Times reports that $100 million from the settlement will fund an addiction treatment and research center at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa, $70 million will pay Oklahoma cities, counties, and Native American tribes and to reimburse the state for its litigation costs. The Sacklers, who were reportedly not named in the lawsuit, will contribute an additional $75 million over five years.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Other companies involved in the lawsuit, such as Johnson and Johnson, have not settled, however. The trial, therefore, is still scheduled for May 28.

Purdue and the Sacklers, meanwhile, still face more than 1,600 opioid lawsuits from 37 states, and numerous cities, counties, and tribes across the United States. For the time being, though, the public won't hear "full recounting of Purdue's actions in promoting OxyContin to doctors and underplaying its addictive properties," writes the Times.