a landmark Court ruling on Tuesday cleared the way for opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma to settle thousands of legal claims tied to the opioid epidemic the ruling from a federal appeals court in New York also protects members of the billionaire Sackler family who owned the company from current or future lawsuits under the plan the sacklers will give up ownership of Purdue enabling it to become a new company called NOAA with profits being sent to a fund to treat and prevent addiction family members will also pay about 6 billion dollars of their own cash over time with a chunk of that money roughly 750 million going to individual victims of the opioid crisis and their survivors now those payments are estimated to range from about thirty five hundred dollars to forty eight thousand the Sackler family and a lawyer for the victims praised the decision while some activists have called for members of the family to be prosecuted for crimes