OxyContin settlement snag: Arizona objects to stay of litigation against Purdue Pharma and Sacklers
Source: Washington Post
In a potential sign of trouble for a sweeping Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal, the state of Arizona, an early supporter of the tentative pact, has raised objections in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and is accusing Purdue of undermining terms of the deal.
Arizona did not declare its opposition to the deal, but in objecting to a stay of litigation against Purdue Pharma and the billionaire Sackler family, which owns the company, the state’s attorney general is throwing a monkey wrench into a key element of the proposal. “At nearly every turn during the course of subsequent negotiations, debtors have sought to undermine material terms of the deal,’’ Arizona wrote in a motion filed late Monday opposing the stay.
Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15 as part of a broad settlement proposal that has been accepted by 24 states but is opposed by 24 states and the District of Columbia. Oklahoma has settled with Purdue. Purdue Pharma has asked the bankruptcy court to temporarily block thousands of lawsuits against Purdue and the Sackler family as a condition to allow the settlement to progress. States opposed to the deal have hotly opposed those motions, but Arizona is the first of the states who supported the settlement to object.
The Sackler family has pledged $3 billion to the deal, an amount that would be derived at least in part from the sale of an overseas drug company it owns. But objecting states say that is far too little, citing estimates that the family took as much as $13 billion in profits out of the company. OxyContin, which has been blamed as a major driver of America’s opioid epidemic, makes up about 90 percent of Purdue Pharma sales.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/oxycontin-settlement-snag-arizona-objects-to-stay-of-litigation-against-purdue-pharma-and-sacklers/2019/10/08/88105058-e9da-11e9-85c0-85a098e47b37_story.html
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