US Supreme Court votes against Purdue opioid settlement

The US Supreme Court has narrowly voted against agreeing to a settlement with Purdue Pharma over the company’s role in the opioid crisis.

Purdue—the manufacturer of addictive painkiller Oxycontin (oxycodone) —and its owners the Sackler family, would have been protected from future opioid-related civil liability claimshad the court agreed to the $6 billion settlement, but the outcome of the vote was five to four against doing so.

Lower courts had approved the deal, which would have seen the Sacklers pay the sum over an 18-year period and give up their ownership of Purdue, with the company then emerging from bankruptcy and its profits going towards opioid abatement.