Thousands of Opioid Victims Excluded from Purdue Pharma Settlement Despite Years of Waiting

Mary Jannotta, 77, spent decades slicing meat and cheese behind deli counters in Philadelphia-area supermarkets. The physical toll of the job led to chronic pain, which worsened after a botched back surgery in 2008. Her doctor prescribed OxyContin, Purdue Pharma’s flagship opioid, which she later became dependent on.

Cut off by her doctors, Jannotta turned to Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood—a notorious open-air drug market—to obtain pills. She lost her car, her home, and ultimately, her grandson, Tyler Cordeiro, who died of a drug overdose in 2020 at age 24. Cordeiro had first stolen Jannotta’s prescription pills as a teenager.

When Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019, Jannotta joined nearly 140,000 others in filing claims against the company, seeking compensation for the harm its drugs caused. While no amount of money could undo their losses, a settlement offered a chance at justice from Purdue and its owners, the Sackler family.

After years of waiting, a new bankruptcy plan was approved in November 2024, allowing payouts to begin. However, a $7.4 billion settlement—including $870 million set aside for individual victims—will exclude tens of thousands of claimants, according to findings by ProPublica and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Fewer Than Half of Claimants Will Receive Compensation

Under the new plan, fewer than half of those who filed claims against Purdue will receive any compensation, despite the company’s claim that it is “the only opioid settlement to date that meaningfully compensates individual victims.” Court records reveal that the revised terms impose stricter eligibility requirements, slash payments, and eliminate compensation for some groups entirely:

• Teenagers who bought Purdue opioids on the street will no longer qualify for compensation.
• Estimated payouts for families of overdose victims have dropped to as little as $8,000, down from a previous $48,000 for an OxyContin-related death.
• The most significant change: victims can no longer submit a sworn affidavit to prove they purchased Purdue opioids. Instead, they must provide prescriptions or other medical or legal records—a requirement that many cannot meet, especially for harm incurred years ago.

Similar affidavit options have been permitted in other major bankruptcy cases, such as those involving sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church, where physical evidence is often scarce or impossible to obtain.

Victims Left Without Recourse

Several victims told ProPublica and The Inquirer that the loss of the affidavit option means they have no pathway to receive a settlement. The revised plan effectively bars many from compensation, leaving them without the justice they sought after years of waiting.

Purdue Pharma sold opioids for decades. While state laws vary, doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies are generally required to retain prescription records. However, these records may not exist for those who obtained pills illegally or whose prescriptions were lost to time. Without the affidavit option, many victims—like Jannotta—are left with no way to prove their claims.