And in the way of sudden windfalls, sometimes they disappear.

Medpage Today reports on the SCOTUS decision striking down the Purdue Pharma/Sackler Opioid Settlement.

On the same day Michigan's 2025 budget is announced. Wonder how much of the settlement has already been spent?

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/opioids/110851

Supreme Court Rejects Purdue Pharma Settlement That Shielded Sacklers

— In a 5-4 decision, justices blocked an agreement with victims and state and local governments

by Associated Press      |     June 27, 2024

 

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a nationwide settlement with oxycodone hydrochloride (OxyContin) maker Purdue Pharma that would have shielded members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids but also would have provided billions of dollars to combat the opioid epidemic.

After deliberating over the case (Harrington v. Purdue Pharma) for more than 6 months, the justices in a 5-4 vote blocked an agreement hammered out with state and local governments and victims. The Sacklers would have contributed up to $6 billion and given up ownership of the company, but would have retained billions more. The agreement provided that the company would emerge from bankruptcy as a different entity, with its profits used for treatment and prevention.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said "nothing in present law authorizes the Sackler discharge."

Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

"Opioid victims and other future victims of mass torts will suffer greatly in the wake of today's unfortunate and destabilizing decision," Kavanaugh wrote.

The high court had put the settlement on hold last summer, in response to objections from the Biden administration.

It's unclear what happens next.

"Today's Supreme Court ruling marks a major setback for the families who lost loved ones to overdose and for those still struggling with addiction," Edward Neiger, a lawyer representing more than 60,000 overdose victims, said in a statement.

"The Purdue plan was a victim-centered plan that would provide billions of dollars to the states to be used exclusively to abate the opioid crisis and $750 million for victims of the crisis, so that they could begin to rebuild their lives. As a result of the senseless 3-year crusade by the government against the plan, thousands of people died of overdose, and today's decision will lead to more needless overdose deaths."

An opponent of the settlement praised the outcome.

Ed Bisch's 18-year-old son Eddie, died from an overdose after taking OxyContin in Philadelphia in 2001.

The older Bisch, who lives in New Jersey, has been speaking out against Purdue and Sackler family members ever since and is part of a relatively small but vocal group of victims and family members who opposed the settlement.

"This is a step toward justice. It was outrageous what they were trying to get away with," he said Thursday. "They have made a mockery of the justice system, and then they tried to make a mockery of the bankruptcy system."

He said he would have accepted the deal if he thought it would have made a dent in the opioid crisis.

He's now calling on the Department of Justice to seek criminal charges against Sackler family members.

Arguments in early December lasted nearly 2 hours in a packed courtroom as the justices seemed, by turns, unwilling to disrupt a carefully negotiated settlement and reluctant to reward the Sacklers.

The issue for the justices was whether the legal shield that bankruptcy provides can be extended to people such as the Sacklers, who have not declared bankruptcy themselves. Lower courts had issued conflicting decisions over that issue, which also has implications for other major product liability lawsuits settled through the bankruptcy system.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee, an arm of the Justice Department, argued that the bankruptcy law does not permit protecting the Sackler family from being sued. During the Trump administration, the government supported the settlement.

The Biden administration had argued to the court that negotiations could resume, and perhaps lead to a better deal, if the court were to stop the current agreement.

Proponents of the plan said third-party releases are sometimes necessary to forge an agreement, and federal law imposes no prohibition against them.

OxyContin first hit the market in 1996, and Purdue Pharma's aggressive marketing of it is often cited as a catalyst of the nationwide opioid epidemic, with doctors persuaded to prescribe painkillers with less regard for addiction dangers.

The drug and the Stamford, Connecticut-based company became synonymous with the crisis, even though the majority of pills being prescribed and used were generic drugs. Opioid-related overdose deaths have continued to climb, hitting 80,000 in recent years. Most of those are from fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.

The Purdue Pharma settlement would have ranked among the largest reached by drug companies, wholesalers, and pharmacies to resolve epidemic-related lawsuits filed by state, local, and Native American tribal governments and others. Those settlements have totaled more than $50 billion.

But the Purdue Pharma settlement would have been only the second so far to include direct payments to victims from a $750 million pool. Payouts would have ranged from about $3,500 to $48,000.

Sackler family members are no longer on the company's board, and they have not received payouts from it since before Purdue Pharma entered bankruptcy. In the decade before that, though, they were paid more than $10 billion, about half of which family members said went to pay taxes.

Here come the funds. Even without Purdue Pharma/Sackler, there are plenty of healthcare businesses being scalped paying a boatload of money.

WILX video and related articles available at the link, omitted here due to length.

https://www.wilx.com/2025/07/10/michigan-receives-part-720-million-settlement/

Michigan receives part of $720 million settlement

By Taylor Gattoni    |    Jul. 10, 2025

 

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Eight drug makers are facing nationwide settlements.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel making the announcement on Thursday.

The settlement comes as these companies manufactured opioid pills, worsening the nationwide opioid crisis worth around $720 million nationwide.

Michigan could receive up to $24.5 million from that settlement.

“We are seeing firsthand how these opioid settlements are making a real difference in our communities,” Nessel said. “I will continue to work alongside my colleagues across the country to hold these companies accountable and bring meaningful relief to the people and families impacted by this crisis.”

The total amount the eight defendants will pay in funds to address the opioid crisis as part of the deal are:

• Mylan (now part of Viatris): $284,447,916 paid over 9 years
• Hikma: $95,818,293 paid over one to 4 years
• Amneal: $71,751,010 paid over 10 years
• Apotex: $63,682,369 paid in a single year
• Indivior: $38,022,450 paid over 4 years
• Sun: $30,992,087 paid over one to 4 years
• Alvogen: $18,680,162 paid in a single year
• Zydus: $14,859,220 paid in a single year

In addition to these payments, several of the settlements allow states to receive free pharmaceutical products or cash in lieu of this product. Seven of the companies (not including Indivior) are prohibited from promoting or marketing opioids and opioid products, making or selling any product that contains more than 40 mg of oxycodone per pill, and are required to put in place a monitoring and reporting system for suspicious orders. Indivior has agreed to not manufacture or sell opioid products for the next 10 years, but it will be able to continue marketing and selling medications to treat opioid use disorder.

The Attorney General’s Office continues to take action in combatting the opioid crisis, resulting in over $1.6 billion dollars to Michigan governments through settlements with McKinsey & Co, Distributors (Cardinal Health, McKesson, Inc., and AmerisourceBergen), Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical, Allergan Pharmaceutical, CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens. The money is distributed to the state and local units of government for Opioid-use disorder treatment and remediation.

Analysis of provisional data from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) indicates a 34% reduction in overdose deaths between 2023 and 2024 – about 1,000 fewer deaths. This continued progress reflects the impact of sustained, strategic investment in prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm-reduction efforts – many of which are made possible through additional funding received as a result of Michigan’s participation in the national opioid settlements.

Bridge Magazine notes that some of the opioid settlement funds have not yet been spent in some counties.  And some of the expenditures charged to the opioid settlement funds have been pretty dubious:

https://bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/three-years-in-funds-to-fight-opioids-still-unspent-in-some-michigan-counties/

Three years in, funds to fight opioids still unspent in some Michigan counties
By Ron French - March 31, 2026

• Some Michigan communities have been slow to spend money meant to battle the opioid crisis
• A report from the Attorney General’s office will offer more details this spring
• Almost 2,000 Michiganders died from drug overdoses in 2024

More than three years after Michigan communities began receiving millions of dollars to fight the opioid epidemic, some have yet to spend a dime.

Michigan is set to receive at least $1.6 billion over 18 years from a national lawsuit settlement with drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies that were deemed partly responsible for the opioid crisis.

The state is getting half that money, with the rest split between Michigan counties, townships and cities. The funds began arriving in January 2023.

While experts say the funds are beginning to make a difference, the sluggish pace of spending in some communities, from the wine country of Grand Traverse County to mid-Michigan’s Eaton County, has frustrated some state leaders.

“If there was some deliberative process that took three years, that’s too long,” said Jonathan Stoltman, of the Grand Rapids-based Opioid Policy Institute. “Money needs to get out the door.”

Settlement funds are meant to help mitigate the continued harm of the opioid crisis, which as recently as 2023 killed nearly 3,000 Michiganders. An estimated 80% of those deaths were opioid-related.

And while overdose deaths declined by a third to 1,938 in 2024, the last year for which the state has complete data, the number of Michigan residents dying from drugs was still higher than the number who died in car crashes.

Despite the crisis, some local governments are only now preparing to begin disbursing funds to community groups that help those battling addiction.

One that has yet to spend any funds is Grand Traverse County, where Traverse City is located, which has about $2 million from the settlement in the bank and is expected to receive $6.2 million overall.

It’s taken time to figure out how to use the one-time funds to best address the crisis, Grand Traverse County Health Officer Mike Lahey told Bridge Michigan.

“I think some localities, while appreciating (the funds), were like, ‘Now what?’” Lahey said. “It was a new source of money with new types of parameters around it.”

Awaiting a full accounting

It’s unclear how much of the settlement funds distributed to Michigan communities since 2023 have been spent. A 2024 Bridge investigation provided the first statewide accounting of how communities were handling those funds. That investigation found that more than 40% of communities had not spent any funds, with about $90 million sitting in bank accounts.

That closely matched the findings of a survey conducted in the spring of 2025 by the Michigan Association of Counties. Of the 36 counties that responded, 40% had yet to open their checkbooks. That was an improvement from 2024, when a similar survey found 51% hadn’t spent money.

Michigan soon may have a more authoritative accounting.

The Michigan Department of Attorney General has asked counties, townships and cities receiving opioid settlement funds to report how they’ve been spent. Those findings are expected to be released this spring, according to Danny Wimmer, a spokesperson for Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Eaton County is among communities yet to distribute funds. The county, which is receiving about $300,000 annually, has “developed a strategic plan and a community assessment to identify gaps in mitigation efforts,” Logan Bailey, director of public and governmental affairs for the county, said in an email to Bridge. “We are still in a planning/assessing/collecting RFPs stage.”

Officials in Lenawee County, which borders Ohio, will consider $1.25 million in proposals for its first opioid settlement spending in April, according to Community Development Coordinator Francine Zysk.

Isabella County, which has $1.1 million in settlement funds in the bank, expects to spend its first settlement funds in 2026. Meanwhile, Schoolcraft County in the Upper Peninsula is just now forming a committee to make spending recommendations.

The city of Warren had $2.9 million in opioid settlement funds in the bank as of October, and had not disbursed any.

“There are those who are anxious to push dollars out without fully considering community needs, process, best practices, or long-term impact,” Mayor Lori Stone said in an October news release. “Opioid use, substance use disorder, and addiction will continuously affect our community. My goal is to find a way of generating continuous revenue that can be dedicated to addressing these ongoing needs.”

Warren officials did not respond to a request for an update on opioid settlement spending

Cara Poland, chair of the Michigan Opioid Advisory Commission, which makes recommendations to the Legislature, agrees that communities should be thoughtful about how they spend settlement dollars.

But after more than three years, “planning time has been adequate,” Poland told Bridge. “We should be (using) those funds.”

A ‘very frustrating process’

In Grand Traverse County, spending was slowed by a failed first attempt to create a plan for the money, said county health officer Lahey. Now, a plan is in place and a task force formed. “I hope to have (requests for proposals) out in May,” he said.

The process has moved too slowly, said Pam Lynch, of the Traverse City-based Harm Reduction Michigan.

“It’s been a very frustrating process for people who have been doing effective work for a long time,” said Lynch.

“I hear the criticism. ‘What are we doing — this money should be out.’” Lahey said. “And I get it.

“There are only so many chips to pass around the table,” he said. “It sounds like a lot of money. But when you start talking about building programs and hiring people, a million dollars can go fast.”

With the state’s half of settlement dollars, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is distributing $131 million this budget year for drug prevention, treatment and recovery services around the state.

One success story: Since 2023, Michigan has spent $14.8 million in settlement money for 424,882 kits of naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, which is used to revive people who have overdosed on opioids. Organizations can request the kits for free from the state, and in many communities, drug users can then pick up free kits in vending machines and converted newspaper boxes.

That effort is credited at least in part for the decline of almost 1,000 overdose deaths in Michigan from 2023 to 2024.

“When someone uses naloxone, they may be reachable for treatment,” said Poland, chair of the Opioid Advisory Commission. “You don’t have a chance for recovery when someone overdoses and dies.”

Stoltman of the Opioid Policy Institute is eager for settlement funds to be spent, but he also worries that some communities have used the funds for things that don’t address the crisis.

Recently, Flint spent $25,000 in settlement funds to pay for a sign-language interpreter at city council meetings. Farmington Hills used $120,000 to backfill its budget, arguing it was to replace money spent on the drug crisis in the past.

“The best case scenario is that folks (who have yet to spend settlement dollars) are scared to mess it up,” Stoltman said. “But in your fourth year, you can’t be too scared to spend it.”

My calculator says that 424,882 naloxone kits for $ 14.8 million amounts to $ 34.83 per kit.