Attorney General Ford Announces Estimated Payment Nevada Will Receive from Purdue Pharma After Bankruptcy Plan Upheld


June 1, 2023

Carson City, NV – Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that Nevada will receive approximately $56 million after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan. The money will be divided between the state and the signatories of the One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries.

“The money Nevada is set to receive through this settlement will add to the over 600 million dollars our office has secured for Nevada, with this money being used to fund evidence-based programs and services addressing the opioid epidemic,” said AG Ford. “The Sackler family’s actions were at the root of this epidemic, and their personal contributions to their company’s bankruptcy will go directly toward undoing the harm that they have caused to Nevadans. However, their conduct will not be forgotten, and companies or individuals who prey on Nevadans, like the Sacklers did, will be subject to paying for the harm they cause. I will not turn a blind eye to these types of actions that have torn apart the lives of so many Nevadans.”

    In a lawsuit filed by the Office of the Nevada Attorney General, the state alleged that Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family were ringleaders in starting the deadly marketing campaign that led to the deaths of thousands of Nevadans. Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy shortly after Nevada filed its complaint in 2019.

    However, that plan was appealed and reversed by the District Court for the Southern District of New York, before being ultimately affirmed on May 30, 2023, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

    In the bankruptcy plan, Purdue Pharma agreed to dissolution of the company. After the dissolution, Purdue Pharma’s assets will shift to a new company which will be sold at the end of approximately three years. In addition, the Sackler family, which owned the company since its inception, will contribute between $5.5-$6 billion to the total monetary amount and will relinquish control of the company. Purdue will also make several million documents public in a repository as a part of injunctive terms; the Sackler family will exit the pharmaceutical industry; and the Sackler family names may be removed from institutions.

      Previously, the state, along with all Nevada counties and cities that currently have active litigation against opioid companies, came to an agreement on the intrastate allocation of funds from opioid-related recoveries. This One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries provides a framework for how funds from any Nevada opioid-related settlement will be fairly and equitably allocated among the state and various local governmental entities and used to remediate the harms, impact and risks caused by the opioid epidemic in the state.

      In early 2021, the Legislature created the Fund for a Resilient Nevada, which directs state opioid recoveries to fund evidence-based programs through the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. The law required the state to develop a State Needs Assessment which identifies the critical needs for attacking the impacts and effects of opioids throughout the entire state, and a State Plan for prioritizing funding for the needs identified in said assessment. Read the Needs Assessment and Plan.

       The law also creates a mechanism for the state, counties and cities to work together in developing county needs assessments and county plans that complement the State Needs Assessment and State Plan, therefore maximizing the use of the money from recoveries.

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