New York | Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, was dissolved on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) in a wide-ranging bankruptcy settlement that will require the company’s owners, members of the Sackler family, to turn over billions of dollars of their fortune to address the deadly opioid epidemic.

But the agreement includes a much-disputed condition: it largely absolves the Sacklers of Purdue opioid-related liability. As such, they will remain among the richest families in the country.