The new agreement with OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma will pay millions of dollars to Pennsylvania and New Jersey over the next nine years. The money will be used to fight the opioid epidemic in these two states.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey are among the 15 states that agreed to abandon their opposition to Purdue’s bankruptcy restructuring plan this week in exchange for pharmaceutical companies to increase their settlement spending from $3 billion to at least $4.5 billion. Among other terms.

The new settlement amount includes $225 million in Pennsylvania. The Associated Press ReportAnd paid more than 110 million U.S. dollars to New Jersey.

The transaction must still be certified in federal court.

“I know that there is not much money to make up for the losses of parents, siblings, children and neighbors, but we intend to invest these billions of dollars immediately to help resolve this crisis and save lives,” Shapiro Say Thursday.

OxyContin is a prescription pain reliever based on opioids. Opioids account for 65% of drug overdose PennsylvaniaIn 2018 is the most recent year’s data, 2,866 people died from opioid overdose.In philadelphia,Data Display In 2020, overdose related to opioids accounted for more than 85% of total overdose. Of the 1,214 drug overdose cases in the city, 1,041 cases involved opioids.

The data is New Jersey Shows that 90% of the 2,900 drug overdose deaths in the state in 2018 involved opioids.

“Sacklers and Purdue Pharmaceuticals recklessly used highly addictive opioid painkillers to saturate society to increase profits, thereby harming millions of individuals and families in New Jersey and across the country,” Grewal Say Thursday. “As I said before, these defendants were morally bankrupt before declaring actual bankruptcy, and we are determined not to let them take shortcuts. We are determined to make them pay the price.”

New settlement agreement will require Purdue disclosure Tens of millions of internal documents, The attorney general who supports the agreement said it will help hold the company accountable for its role in the American opioid epidemic.The transaction also allowed the Sackler family-owners of Perdue Pharma-to pay 50 million USD, Which gives them personal immunity from litigation.

Shapiro said: “Although this deal is not perfect, the Sackler family has used bankruptcy as a shield of real accountability, providing them with the help of this epidemic that takes 13 lives in our Commonwealth every day. The role played by fuel bears real responsibility.”

Purdue has faced thousands of lawsuits from state and city governments and other plaintiffs for selling its painkillers, and sought bankruptcy protection in 2019.