A US federal judge has sentenced OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to forfeit $225 million to the Justice Department, a long-awaited step that clears the way for the company to finalise a sweeping settlement of thousands of lawsuits tied to its central role in America's opioid crisis. The forfeiture, agreed to in a 2020 plea deal resolving federal civil and criminal investigations, comes with a significant concession: the government will not collect a further $5.3 billion in criminal forfeitures and fines, nor $2.8 billion in civil liabilities, in exchange for Purdue settling the broader litigation. The wider settlement, approved by a separate judge in November, could take effect as early as 1 May.

The case stretches back to November 2020, when Purdue — headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut — pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges. The company admitted it lacked an effective programme to prevent its powerful prescription painkillers from being diverted to the black market, despite telling the US Drug Enforcement Administration otherwise. It also admitted to paying doctors through a speakers programme to encourage prescriptions and to funding an electronic medical records company to steer physicians toward opioid prescriptions. The aggressive sales culture at Purdue has become a symbol of the opioid epidemic: at a 1996 sales rally, Richard Sackler, then a senior executive and later company president, called for a "blizzard of prescriptions."

The broader settlement requires members of the Sackler family, who own Purdue, to contribute up to $7 billion over 15 years, primarily to state, local and Native American tribal governments to fund efforts to combat the opioid crisis. It is the only major settlement in a wave of pharmaceutical industry agreements — worth more than $50 billion in total — to include direct payments to some individual victims or their survivors. Under the deal, Purdue would cease to exist and be replaced by a new public-benefit company called Knoa Pharma, governed by a board appointed by the states. The restructuring is considered one of the most complex corporate reorganisations ever undertaken; legal and professional fees alone have already exceeded $1 billion.

Despite the scale of the settlement, significant controversy remains. No members of the Sackler family face criminal charges, even though family members extracted $10.7 billion in payments from Purdue between 2008 and 2018. Under the deal, those who accept the settlement terms cannot sue Sackler family members over opioids — a provision that has drawn fierce criticism. More than 54,000 people with personal injury claims voted to accept the settlement, but 218 rejected it, and a vocal group of survivors has continued to push for individual prosecutions. Susan Ousterman, whose son Tyler Cordiero died of an overdose at age 24 in 2020, organised other bereaved families to deliver victim impact statements ahead of the sentencing, urging the judge to reject the plea deal and pressing the Justice Department to pursue charges against individuals, including Sackler family members.

The opioid crisis has been linked to approximately 900,000 deaths in the United States since 1999, making it one of the deadliest public health emergencies in the country's modern history. Critics like Ousterman have also raised concerns about how settlement funds distributed to states and municipalities are being spent, arguing that some governments have used the money in ways only loosely connected to addiction treatment and prevention. The sentencing marks a milestone in a years-long legal saga, but for many families, the question of whether the outcome truly constitutes justice remains unanswered.