Mallinckrodt Plc plans to pay more than $4.2 million in bonuses to retain top executives, as the drugmaker looks to avoid bankruptcy and settle more than 2,500 state and local government lawsuits over its handling of opioid painkillers, Bloomberg News reported. The St. Louis-based drug distributor said in a Nov. 5 securities filing that it, or one of its units, may have to restructure the company’s “obligations in a bankruptcy proceeding” if a global deal can’t be reached to wipe out all opioid liability. In a separate filing the same day, Mallinckrodt said it agreed to pay retention bonuses to its top executives, including Chief Executive Officer Mark Trudeau, who stands to get more than $1.5 million. The company’s chief financial, legal and scientific officers will also get extra compensation to remain in their jobs. Mallinckrodt, along with fellow drug distributors McKesson Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., and opioid makers Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., are talking with state attorneys generals and the municipalities’ lawyers about a global settlement. Some of those companies have floated a deal valued at almost $50 billion. The retention payments were determined to be appropriate by a committee of the board of directors, Mallinckrodt said in a statement.
