Judge Overturns Purdue Pharma’s Opioid Settlement
The New York Times
The ruling said the company’s owners, members of the Sackler family, could not receive protection from civil lawsuits in return for a $4.5 billion contribution.
A federal judge on Thursday evening unraveled a painstakingly negotiated settlement between Purdue Pharma and thousands of state, local and tribal governments who had sued the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin for its role in the ongoing opioid epidemic, saying that the plan was flawed in one critical area.
Judge Colleen McMahon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said that the settlement, part of a restructuring plan for Purdue approved in September by a bankruptcy judge, should not be allowed because it released the company’s owners, members of the billionaire Sackler family, from liability in civil opioids cases.
The Sacklers did not file for personal bankruptcy protection, but they had made the condition an absolute requirement in exchange for contributing $4.5 billion to the settlement agreement.
