OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP won court approval of a $4.5 billion bankruptcy settlement that shields its owners, members of the Sackler family, from lawsuits accusing them of contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic in exchange for providing funding to combat the crisis, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., said yesterday that he will confirm a restructuring plan that will transform Purdue into a public benefit company and settle civil lawsuits filed by governments and opioid victims against the drugmaker and its owners. The ruling can be appealed by the handful of federal and state authorities that opposed Purdue’s bankruptcy-exit plan and argued at trial that the settlement structure is unconstitutional and the Sacklers aren’t contributing enough of their wealth. Purdue’s family owners collected more than $10 billion from the company between 2008 and 2017, about half of which went to taxes or was reinvested in the business. The bankruptcy plan’s approval means those family members can put behind them numerous lawsuits and investigations from state regulators and private litigants over their stewardship of Purdue. The Sacklers who own Purdue and sat on its board are getting broad releases that extinguish civil litigation currently pending against them as well as lawsuits that could be brought in the future. The order approving the chapter 11 plan is contingent on Purdue lawyers making relatively minor changes that Judge Drain described Wednesday. He said he wished the Sacklers had contributed more but that he couldn’t force any particular outcome.
