Purdue Pharma Files For Bankruptcy
Purdue Pharma is accused of fueling Opioid Crisis with its painkiller, OxyTocin. (Flickr)
Faced with thousands of lawsuits from state and local governments over its role in the opioid crisis, Purdue Pharma officially declared bankruptcy on September 16, according to the Associated Press.
Purdue Pharma manufactures OxyTocin, and the company aggressively marketed its product as a painkiller while downplaying its addictive qualities, worsening the national crisis, NPR reports.
As part of a settlement, the Sackler family, the founders and owners of Purdue Pharma, agreed to file for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, announcing the decision soon after investigators discovered that Purdue wire-transferred nearly $1 billion to Swiss bank accounts in order to protect the Sackler family fortune from more litigation.
The Sackler family agreed to give up control of the company and pay approximately $3 billion to assist the communities most affected by the opioid crisis.
Steve Miller, chairman of Purdue’s board of directors, said, “This settlement framework avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years on protracted litigation, and instead will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis,” NPR says.
Furthermore, many states are reluctant to agree to the settlement, according to the Associated Press, as the company’s misdeeds allegedly cost thousands of people their lives in the ongoing crisis, especially in the Midwest.
Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has gone on record as saying, “We don’t think that this $3 billion guarantee is sufficient. They’ve left a trail of addiction and death in Maryland and all over the country,” according to WTOP.
Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers is calling for further investigations into Purdue Pharma practices, and he plans to introduce a joint resolution to investigate the Purdue Pharma settlement further, signaling that the company’s troubles are far from over, reports WKYT.
Still, the Sackler family is trying to convince other states to accept this settlement, in an attempt to avoid potentially worse consequences that could result from a lawsuit, saying, “We are hopeful that in time, those parties who are not yet supportive will ultimately shift their focus to the critical resources that the settlement provides to people and problems that need them.”
Some states are open to the settlement, believing that it may be the only path to receiving some financial compensation instead of undergoing the long and expensive process of filing a class-action lawsuits. Others contend that the Sacklers are still obligated to cover the financial damage they have caused in the opioid crisis.