After years-long litigation, members of the billionaire Sackler family and their company, Purdue Pharma, have reached a nearly $6 billion deal to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company for its role in the opioid epidemic. Under the agreement, the Sacklers won immunity from further civil prosecution—one of the final sticking points—but not from possible criminal liability. The family agreed to add $1 billion to the settlement, and also to issue a so-called apology statement in which it expressed “regret” that its drug OxyContin “unexpectedly” became part of an opioid crisis. Family members have never acknowledged wrongdoing or any personal responsibility for the public health crisis, which has killed more than 600,000 Americans over the past two decades.

If approved by a bankruptcy court judge, the deal brings to an end a series of sprawling and contentious legal battles in which pharmaceutical companies such as Purdue were blamed for fueling the crisis by falsely marketing their highly addictive prescription painkillers as safe. The last hurdle for eight holdout states was accepting the additional $1 billion, as well as the Sacklers agreeing to their demand for a hearing that would allow people who suffered from addiction to OxyContin to describe what they endured, with at least one member of the Sackler family present. Also, the Sackler name—long associated with philanthropy—would have to be removed from cultural and other institutions if asked to do so.

The holdout states will receive a bigger portion of the settlement payout, which will go toward drug treatment, education, and prevention programs, as well as smaller payments to more than 100,000 individual victims. The Sacklers did win more time to distribute the extra money—now to be doled out over 18 years—with the remainder coming over the next 9 years. Experts say the states eventually agreed to the conditions of the deal because they didn’t want to fight another lengthy legal battle, and with the addiction and overdose crisis raging, they need the money sooner rather than later. But others believe the Sacklers are getting off easy, without any accountability for their actions and the pain and deaths they have caused. Still, with other opioid lawsuits also being settled for billions of dollars—including those against drug distributors and pharmacy chains—there will now be significant funding available to fight the epidemic and help those struggling with drug abuse.