A group representing the victims in the New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc. chapter 11 case is asking the bankruptcy court to open the door for lawsuits against other potentially liable companies, such as health care providers who administered the injections responsible for a deadly meningitis outbreak last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The company’s unsecured creditors’ committee has requested that a bankruptcy court to formally declare that New England Compounding is insolvent so it can begin that process, according to court documents. Some states—specifically Tennessee, where 153 cases of meningitis linked to the tainted injections were reported and 15 people died as a result—require this declaration of insolvency before permitting litigation against third parties in product liability cases to move forward. However, the committee has asked that the bankruptcy court make this declaration apply exclusively to lawsuits filed as part of the consolidated proceeding in Massachusetts, in an effort to keep all of the litigation and all of the money under one umbrella. The ultimate goal, the committee said in court documents filed Thursday, is to set up a process for these third parties to contribute funds to the bankruptcy estate in exchange for a release of their liabilities.
