Purdue Pharma, the drug company that made billions selling the controversial pain medication OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy in White Plains, New York on late Sunday night. The Purdue Pharma bankruptcy filing is designed to impede more than 2,000 lawsuits against Purdue and its private owners, the billionaire Sackler family.
The drugmaker has denied any wrongdoing.
“This court-supervised process is intended to, among other things, facilitate an orderly and equitable resolution of all claims against Purdue while preserving the value of Purdue’s assets for the benefit of those impacted by the opioid crisis,” the company said in a statement.
Purdue’s bankruptcy filing has angered claimants who’ve taken to social media to showcase their anger. As Monday morning rolled in, there were several thousand tweets mentioning Purdue Pharma. Most agree that the billionaire Sackler family is low-balling opioid victims. Some have even called this bankruptcy one of the most disgusting episodes of corporate moral failure.
Purdue Pharma filing bankruptcy protection in the quiet of the night is one of the biggest bunches of bullshit I’ve ever seen. Bad fu**ing people continuing to terrorize the country. Smh.
— Rex Chapman (@RexChapman) September 16, 2019
#PurduePharma I live in West Virginia ground zero of this horrible crisis caused by companies like Purdue. I can’t count how many people I know that have suffered at the hands of the Sackler family and to see them get away like nothing ever happened is infuriating. https://t.co/tSWWdNMIpQ
— Bigtident (@bigtident) September 16, 2019
Purdue Pharma bankruptcy leads to rise of NewCo
Purdue Pharma bankruptcy news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. It comes after the Sackler family, reached a tentative settlement with roughly 2,000 local, state, and Native American governments that are suing the company. As a part of the settlement proposal, Purdue will provide more than $10 billion in funding to address the opioid abuse epidemic, which will include settlements with 24 state attorneys general, officials from five US territories and the multi-district litigation.
The drugmaker will be reorganized under bankruptcy as “NewCo,” which will produce medicines to receive drug overdoses and continue to develop an OTC naloxone product that they will provide at no or low costs to communities across the US.
NewCo will be overseen by a board selected by the claimants.
The settlement proposal has not received unanimous support. It’s getting a lot of pushback from attorneys general who want the Sackler family to admit guilt in the opioid abuse epidemic. Neither the Sackler family nor Purdue Pharma has admitted any wrongdoing as part of the settlement proposal. The Sackler family is unlikely to face any jail time for creating America’s opioid epidemic which has killed over 400,000 people since 1999.
The board approved the Chapter 11 settlement, and Purdue bankruptcy was a part of the company’s settlement proposal.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro called the proposed settlement “an insultingly weak offer” that would allow the Sacklers to scot-free with billions in their banks. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said he plans to sue the Sackler family directly.
Purdue Pharma bankruptcy is expected to be contested by a group of 26 states.
