AfriPulse
(AP) — On Tuesday, a federal bankruptcy court judge gave the green light to Purdue Pharma’s strategy to resolve numerous lawsuits related to the opioid epidemic, marking a significant step in addressing the devastating impact of OxyContin.
Judge Sean Lane of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court was expected to articulate his rationale for endorsing the settlement plan, which mandates that the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma’s proprietors, contribute up to $7 billion over the next 15 years. The bulk of these funds is earmarked for government efforts to combat the opioid crisis, a public health emergency responsible for approximately 900,000 U.S. fatalities since 1999.
Part of the settlement will be allocated in the coming year to individuals who had OxyContin prescriptions and their surviving relatives, providing some financial relief and acknowledgment of their suffering.
This agreement comes as a replacement for a previous proposal rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The court found that the initial plan wrongly offered legal protection to Sackler family members against future litigation. The revised settlement allows entities not participating in the payments to pursue legal action against the family.
Members of the Sackler family, who have distanced themselves from the company over the past seven years, will relinquish ownership and face a global ban on selling opioids. Purdue Pharma will eventually be rebranded as Knoa Pharma, transitioning to a model focused on public interest.
The deal, which the judge said he would accept last week, is among the largest in a series of opioid settlements brought by state and local governments against drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies that totaled about $50 billion.
Money will go to governments and some individuals
Sackler family members agreed to pay up to $7 billion over 15 years, providing most of the cash involved in the settlement.
The funds distributed to state, local and Native Americans is to be used mostly to address the opioid crisis, as has been the case with other opioid settlements.
About $850 million of that is to go to individual victims, including children born with opioid withdrawal.
People with addiction and survivors of those who died must prove they were prescribed OxyContin to participate. Those who do could receive payments of around $8,000 or around $16,000, depending on how long they received the drug and how many other people qualify. The money for individual victims is to be distributed next year.
Not only money is at stake
Members of the Sackler family are agreeing to give up ownership of Purdue.
For them, that won’t be a major change since no family member has served on Purdue’ board or received money from the company since 2018. The plan calls for Purdue to be replaced with a new company, Knoa Pharma, to be controlled by a board appointed by states and with a mission of benefiting the public.
Sackler family members are also agreeing not to have their name put on institutions in exchange for contributions — something they’ve done often in the past, though many institutions have cut ties with them.
The company has also agreed to make public a trove of internal documents that could shed additional light into how the company promoted and monitored opioids.
One feature that won’t be repeated under this new deal that was in a previous one: forcing members of the Sackler family to hear directly from people harmed by OxyContin.
A long legal saga could be wrapping up
Purdue filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 when it was facing thousands of opioid-related lawsuits from state and local governments and others.
A judge approved a settlement two years later. But the U.S. Supreme Court later rejected that plan because it gave members of the Sackler family protection from lawsuits over opioids even though they were not personally declaring bankruptcy.
The latest plan allows lawsuits against Sackler family members by those who don’t opt into the deal.
This time, few parties objected to the settlement, although some people who represented themselves and who were addicted to opioids — or had loved ones who were — raised concerns during the three-day confirmation hearing last week.
Source: NewsFinale | Read the Full Story…
