Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, which controls it, have agreed to pay up to $7.4bn (£6bn) to settle claims over its powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin.
The deal represents an increase of more than $1 billion over a previous agreement this was rejected in 2024. by the US Supreme Courtaccording to the news agencies AP and Reuters.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and Purdue to pay $900 million.
Oxycontin, which is often a gateway to harder drugs like heroin, has been blamed for fueling America's deadly opioid crisis and has generated billions of dollars for the Sackler family.
“We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will provide billions of dollars to compensate victims, reduce the opioid crisis and provide life-saving overdose treatment and rescue drugs,” Purdue said in a statement.
The deal still needs court approval and some of the details have yet to be ironed out, but the AP says it is among the largest settlements reached in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Indian tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for the deadly epidemic.
Under President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal, according to the AP.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong told Reuters the settlement would help bring closure to victims of the opioid crisis.
“It's not just about the money,” Tong said. “There's not enough money in the world to fix it.”
Since 1999, a few years after the drug became available, opioid overdose deaths have jumped to tens of thousands a year.
Court documents allege the Sackler family had long known about the legal risks and had withdrawn about $11 billion from the company in the decade before its bankruptcy. They hid much of the money overseas while using some of it to pay company taxes, making recovery difficult.