ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's Attorney General says the state has resolved a lawsuit against Purdue Pharmaceutical that's going to shut it down for good.
Letitia James says New York will get about $200 million from the nearly $4.5 billion mediation.
That money came out of a multistate lawsuit over the opioid crisis, accusing Purdue and its owners, the Sackler family, of pushing opioids on addicts and fueling that crisis.
James explained Thursday why the state took this deal, as opposed to taking the suit to trial.
"This deal, I don't think that any of us will say that this deal is perfect," James said. "But we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good. We can't let perfect be the enemy of getting results, and this deal gets one of the nation's most harmful drug dealers out of the opioid business."
That deal also releases millions of internal documents from Purdue to the public and prevents the Sacklers from ever selling opioids again.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma's plan to reorganize into an entity whose profits will be used to combat the U.S. opioid crisis got a big boost as 15 states have dropped their objections to the new business model.
The agreement from state attorneys general was disclosed in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing late Wednesday. It includes those who had most aggressively opposed Purdue’s original settlement proposal.
To win the support, the company agreed to make more documents public, and members of the Sackler family who own it will kick in more money. But the owners have not admitted wrongdoing.