business1 d ago
Opioid maker Purdue Pharma shuts down as part of $7.4 billion deal
Full coverage view across outlets, lean, source quality, and framing. Compare framing without algorithmic ranking.
3 articles3 outletsSpread 0.0012 claims
Full coverage view across outlets, lean, source quality, and framing. Compare framing without algorithmic ranking.
No coverage from this perspective yet.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma set to dissolve after judge approves its criminal sentence
‘It is not lost on me that those who started the epidemic will not serve a sentence,’ the judge said Kathleen Scarpone, left, and others protest in front of the Arthur M. Sackler Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., in 2019. Scarpone lost her son to OxyContin addiction.Josh Reynolds/AP By Associated PressApril 30, 2026 NEWARK, N.J. — 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 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. STAT+ Exclusive Story Already have an account? Log in This article is exclusive
Opioid maker Purdue Pharma shuts down as part of $7.4 billion deal
May 1, 2026, 4:40 p.m. ETPurdue Pharma, the bankrupted drug manufacturer at the center of the nation’s yearslong opioid epidemic, shut down May 1.The closure is part of a $7.4 billion deal reached after Purdue and the Sackler family, which privately owned the company, settled thousands of lawsuits filed by victims and several states to try to address harm caused by the drugs. Between 1999 and 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated about 806,000 people died from opioid overdoses, using prescriptions such as Purdue's OxyContin and illegal opioids, seen prominently with fentanyl.Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019, and the company's bankruptcy plan went into effect May 1, nearly six months after a federal judge approved the settlement. The bankruptcy plan requires Purdue cease operations to form a new public benefit corporation called Knoa Pharma, which is run by a nonprofit foundation.“Under the Sacklers’ control, Purdue developed, manufactured, and then misleadingly marketed its deadly opioids, destroying lives and communities across the country,” New York Attorney Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This company that put profits over people for decades is now shut down forever.”All members of the Sackler family are barred from selling opioids in
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's settlement, by the numbers
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is set to dissolve and be replaced with a new company operating in the public interest under the settlement of thousands of lawsuits that goes into effect Friday. It’s among the largest in a series of settlements over the toll of opioids over the past several years. It’s particularly prominent because some people pin the nation’s opioid epidemic to the sales efforts behind OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller that became available in 1996. Here’s a look at the epidemic and settlement by the numbers. 900,000 More than this many deaths in the U.S. have been connected to opioid overdose since 1999, according to federal data. The epidemic’s death toll was first driven by prescription opioids, then heroin, and most recently - and most deadly - fentanyl. $7.4 billion The minimum money provided by the Purdue settlement. Most of it - at least $6.5 billion - is to come from members of the Sackler family who owned the company. They’ve also given up any interest in the drugmaker, which family members stopped controlling before it filed for bankruptcy in 2019. As part of the settlement, Purdue is being replaced by Knoa Pharma, with a board appointed by
No coverage from this perspective yet.
Pro users see canonical claims across the cluster and which outlets reported each one.
Learn moreFirst seen
May 1, 2026
Latest
May 1, 2026
Outlets
3
Diversity
100/100
© 2026 Vistoa. All rights reserved.
Limited excerpts, attribution, analysis, and outbound publisher links remain core product boundaries.