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Maryland Expected To Receive Over $90 Million
BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today announced that a $7.4 billion settlement reached with Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, has become legally effective, capping nearly a decade of work by attorneys general from across the country in pursuing investigations and litigation over Purdue’s and the Sacklers’ roles in fueling the opioid crisis. The attorneys general launched a multistate investigation of Purdue in 2016, and the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division filed a Statement of Charges against Purdue and the Sacklers in 2019.
After Purdue filed bankruptcy in September 2019 in light of massive litigation against it, the attorneys general have taken a lead role in the bankruptcy proceedings. In 2021, Maryland was one of nine states that challenged a bankruptcy plan that would have provided significantly less than the amount of the final settlement. The new settlement that obtained more money from the Sacklers was negotiated after the Supreme Court, in June 2024, invalidated provisions in a prior settlement. The settlement gives funds to communities across the country, as well as individual victims and other groups who filed claims in the bankruptcy proceedings.
“The opioid crisis has devastated Maryland families and communities, and the Sacklers must be held accountable for the role they played in fueling it,” said Attorney General Brown. “This settlement will support treatment, prevention, and recovery for Marylanders who have suffered for far too long.”
All eligible U.S. states and territories, represented by 55 attorneys general, previously signed onto the settlement. It resolves litigation against Purdue and the Sacklers for producing and aggressively marketing opioids in the United States, fueling the largest drug crisis in the country’s history.
The settlement permanently bars the Sacklers from selling opioids in the United States and delivers funds for addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery to communities across the country over the next 15 years. Maryland is expected to receive more than $90 million from the settlement.
Most settlement funds will be distributed in the first three years. The Sacklers are paying more than $1.5 billion today, followed by approximately an additional $500 million in May 2027, $500 million in May 2028, and $400 million in May 2029. Additionally, Purdue is paying approximately $900 million today.
With this settlement, Maryland has now secured more than $747 million in opioid settlement funds.
“The opioid crisis has touched everyone, but has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown Marylanders and low-income families, and has devastated rural communities,” said Lt. Governor Aruna Miller. “While no settlement can undo that harm, it marks a step toward accountability and healing. These dollars, through our Maryland Opioid Restitution Fund, must reach the communities most impacted and help dismantle the systemic barriers that have fueled this crisis. And we must meet people where they are with compassion and care. No community should have to face this crisis alone.”
Maryland’s Opioid Restitution Fund (ORF) was established in 2019 to receive all monies awarded to the State of Maryland through prescription opioid-related legal action. Reporting to the Office of the Lt. Governor, Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response administers ORF dollars through grants to community organizations and partnerships with state agencies to support essential programs and services for individuals affected by the opioid crisis. You can learn more about the state’s efforts to distribute these funds at StopOverdose.maryland.gov/ORF.
“Our communities deserved better,” said Maryland Special Secretary of Overdose Response Emily Keller. “Purdue Pharma’s predatory actions unleashed untold devastation in Maryland and across the country. And while no amount of money can bring back the loved ones we have lost, it’s only right that we use these funds to prevent further harm, to expand proven strategies that can reduce overdoses and increase access to life-saving care across the state.”
The settlement also means that Purdue’s manufacturing operations transfer effective today to Knoa Pharma LLC, which will be overseen by a board of directors who had no connection to Purdue. The settlement prevents Knoa from marketing opioids and provides for an independent monitor to ensure it provides these medicines in the safest possible manner that limits the risk of diversion.
The settlement also ensures Purdue and the Sacklers will make public more than 30 million documents related to their opioid business.
In reaching the settlement, Attorney General Brown is joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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