As part of the proposed plan, the Sackler family agreed to pay another $ 4.2 billion over the next nine years to resolve various civil claims.
“The vast majority of debtors’ assets will be devoted to programs to reduce the opioid crisis. Millions of dollars will be invested in trusts that benefit states and localities, as well as other creditor groups such as Native American tribes, hospitals, and children with a “history of neonatal abstinence syndrome and their guardians. Each trust will require that the funds be spent exclusively on opioid reduction efforts, and that there will be transparency to ensure this,” read court documents.
But attorneys general across the country have objected to the settlement. In a joint statement, they called Purdue a ‘criminal enterprise’ and demanded that the company acknowledge that it was playing its part in creating the crisis.
“It does not come under the responsibility of families and survivors,” the statement said.
The restructuring plan lasts more than 300 pages. It outlines how the organized pharmaceutical company plans to transfer billions of dollars and current assets to a newly formed company, whose stated mission is to address the country’s opioid crisis.
Purdue Pharma said in a press release that state and local governments would not own or manage the new company, and that more than $ 10 billion would be allocated to ‘deliver millions of doses of potentially life-saving treatment with opioid addiction and to overdose drugs. . . “
Purdue Pharma’s plan will also distribute funds through two newly established national opioid reduction trusts: the National Opioid Abatement Trust (the “NOTE”) and the Tribe Trust, which will be dedicated to resolving claims of Native American tribes.
“All value distributed to NOAT and the Tribe Trust is devoted exclusively to programs designed to reduce the opioid crisis and for no other purpose (except to finance the administration of the programs themselves and to pay fees and costs The Debtors believe that funding These dedicated funds for reduction, although they provide significant value for the distribution to holders of PI claims, are in the best interests of creditors and the American public, ”read court documents.
A hearing to approve the plan is set for April 21.
Oxycontin is one of the most abused prescription drugs of all time, linking the pharmacy company to the opioid epidemic raging across the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 450,000 people in the United States have died in the ten years that began in 1999 from overdoses that included opioids, including prescription and illicit drugs. And about a third of deaths in 2018 were prescribed by opioids.
The company did not have $ 8 billion in cash, so Purdue agreed to dissolve itsefl and use its assets to create a new ‘public benefit company’ controlled by a trust or similar entity designed to benefit of the American public. The plan was quickly criticized by dozens of state attorneys general.
The Sackler family earned a fortune from the sale of Oxycontin. In October, the family paid $ 225 million in damages but did not accept responsibility for the opioid crisis.
The Sackler’s have already paid $ 225 million under an initial settlement framework to satisfy their civil settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, and persons affiliated with the Sackler entities have agreed to be ‘banned from producing or selling opioids, subject to exceptions are agreed upon, ”read court documents.