Purdue Pharma , the drug company that makes the controversial pain medication OxyContin , filed for bankruptcy protection tardy Sunday night . The bankruptcy filing will temporarily stanch thousands of lawsuits against Purdue say that it made billions of dollar while helping to create America ’s opioid epidemic which has killed over400,000 peoplesince 1999 .
The failure news show , first reported by theWall Street Journal , comes after the Sackler category , the private possessor of Purdue , reached atentative settlementwith some of the roughly 2,000 local authorities that are suing the company . That concord would regard forfeiting roughly $ 10 billion over the duad of seven years , with about $ 3 billion of that from the Sackler fellowship ’s personal fate , which is believed to top$13 billion . prosecutor desire the Sacklers to turn over $ 4.5 billion in personal wealth , something that the family has rejected .
Neither Purdue Pharma nor the Sacklers have admitted any wrongdoing as part of the colonization talks and the mob is unlikely to face up any jail time for their alleged crimes . Purdue ’s board approved the Chapter 11 settlement yesterday , grant toNPR , and bankruptcy was all part of the drug troupe ’s purpose settlement program .
Purdue Pharma headquarters in downtown Stamford, Connecticut on April 2, 2019Photo: (Getty Images)
“ This settlement framework avoids waste hundred of 1000000 of buck and years on protracted judicial proceeding , and instead will supply one thousand million of dollars and decisive resources to communities across the res publica trying to cope with the opioid crisis , ” Steve Miller , president of Purdue ’s board of directors , recount NPRovernight .
Under the current design , Purdue Pharma would be handed over to a board of trustees and a new company would be created to continue betray OxyContin , a powerful pain medicament that ’s highly habit-forming . And while Dr. are now dictate fewer opioids than they were a few age ago , there ’s a real danger thatpeople with severe paincould not get the relief they need associety overcorrects .
The bankruptcy news follows a report card that the Sacklers were hide out at least$1 billionfrom prosecutors in Swiss and other foreign bank accounts , according to the New York Attorney General , and some local governments consider that the $ 10 billion proposed settlement is n’t enough in light of this revelation .
Purdue pleaded hangdog in 2007 to “ misbranding ” OxyContin and downplaying addiction endangerment , but the troupe has been more disputative in the past X , pass a heap of money to better public relations . The Sacklers have contributed millions to philanthropic organizations over the years but nonprofit have go to reevaluate money from the phratry as their name becomes toxic . The Tate museums in London , the National Portrait Gallery in the UK , and the Guggenheim in New York announced earlier this year that they would no longer accept moneyfrom the Sacklers .
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain is superintend the bankruptcy proceeding in upstate New York and Purdue but wants the lawsuits to stop . The companionship is characterizing any persist in litigation as hopeless in the Wake Island of bankruptcy .
“ The resumption of judicial proceeding would chop-chop belittle all the resource of the ship’s company and would be drop off - lose - lose all the way around , ” Purdue Chairman Miller told NPR . “ Whatever people might wish for is not on the table now . ”
CrimesDrugsopioid crisis
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