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Drug maker Purdue has moved one step closer to exiting bank protection after 15 other U.S. states withdrew their objections to a $ 4.3 billion deal aimed at resolving opioid crisis-related disputes.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy in Chapter 11 after the Purdue OxyContin Maker received thousands of lawsuits from states, towns and cities in the United States. Claimants are seeking funding to solve a devastating problem opioid crisis this has caused nearly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades.
There were a large number of American states and territories already signed to a proposal for a financial agreement with Purdue and some members of the Sackler family who own it. But others resisted, arguing that more money was needed.
In an attempt to secure the support of the outstanding states and pave the way for the exit from bankruptcy, members of the Sackler family who own Purdue Pharma increased the amount of cash that would contribute to a possible liquidation of the bankruptcy. in addition to $ 4.3 billion.
Following court-supervised mediation, 15 states (including New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania) have reached an agreement in principle with Purdue, according to a bankruptcy court case Wednesday afternoon. But there are still several attacks, such as California and Maine.
Maura Healey, Massachusetts’s attorney general, called the terms of the deal “unprecedented.” Members of the Purdue-owned Sackler family will pay more than $ 4.3 billion over nine years. According to US court records, control of two Sackler family charities – which need to have at least $ 175 million – will be handed over to the National Opioid Abatement Trust, to fund programs to mitigate the impact of the crisis. .
The agreement also prohibits some members of the Purdue-owned Sackler family from having naming rights related to their charitable donations until all the money has been paid and they have “abandoned, all over the world, all the businesses that are engaged. in the manufacture or sale of opioids, ”the court file said.
Tens of millions of documents will also be made public, including correspondence between the company and its lawyers.
Healey said Purdue would be sold or liquidated in 2024 and added, “We will end his legacy.” New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday that while the deal “was not perfect… It gets one of the country’s most harmful drug traffickers out of the opioid business, once and for all.” .
Purdue said: “We will continue to work to generate an even greater consensus for our reorganization plan, which will transfer billions of dollars in value to trusts for the benefit of the American people and direct the necessary drugs and resources critically. to communities and people across the country who have been affected by the opioid crisis. “
The agreement requires the approval of the judge overseeing Purdue’s bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy is one of the most prominent cases of the opioid crisis. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against pharmaceutical companies and distributors in the United States, accused of marketing highly addictive painkillers and contributing to a crisis that has ravaged America. Opioid overdoses account for the majority of U.S. drug deaths.
In New York and California, lawsuits are pending against other companies.
Purdue previously agreed a civil and criminal agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice worth perhaps more than $ 8.3 billion.
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