Sacklers in talks to give up Purdue Pharma

The family that owns the manufacturer of OxyContin, the prescription painkiller at the heart of the opioid crisis, is discussing a potential settlement for thousands of lawsuits over the drug’s toll in which family members would pay $3 billion of their own money, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

The drug company, which introduced the painkiller in 1996, would pay out billions more by filing for bankruptcy protection and becoming a “public beneficiary trust” that would direct profit from drug sales to the plaintiffs. Participants in the talks put the plan’s total value at $10 billion to $12 billion.

The company would promise to provide, without cost, several addiction treatment drugs that it’s currently developing.

What’s next: The framework for the agreement and a decision on which plaintiffs would sign onto it are still in flux. If the deal is completed, Purdue would be the first company to settle all claims against it for its role in a public health crisis that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in the past two decades.