The threat of litigation looms as Purdue Pharma returns to settlement talks

abcnews.go.com:

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, the family that owns it and lawyers for thousands of parties with claims against it are getting ready to work on a new settlement after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the last one

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is trying to chart the course for a new mass settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids after the U.S. Supreme Court last month rejected its previous deal, which was years in the making.

State, local and tribal governments and individual victims want a sense of justice — and money.

And in this case, there's not enough money to pay for all harms that are claimed. Most of what there is is held by members of the Sackler family who own Purdue — much of it in overseas trust funds that are protected from U.S. lawsuits.

Here's a look at where things stand:

A nationwide opioid epidemic has been raging for decades. In recent years, overdoses have been linked to about 80,000 deaths a year.

Currently, the biggest killers are fentanyl and other potent substances produced illicitly in labs. Before that, it was heroin, and before that prescription drugs, including OxyContin, which hit the market in 1996.

Purdue targeted doctors with a campaign asserting that there was a low risk of addiction to its latest formulation of a kind of drug that's been around for centuries.

Since 2017, drugmakers, wholesalers, pharmacy chains and other businesses have agreed to pay more than $50 billion in settlements with governments that have sued. Most of the money is intended to go to stemming the crisis.

Purdue's deal would be among the largest.

Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection nearly five years ago as a way to settle all the legal claims it was facing.

The deal it ultimately struck called