A federal bankruptcy court hearing on Endo International's proposal to sell the pharmaceutical company to its senior lenders, which are owed nearly $6 billion, will not be held until October, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. The hearing was initially slated to take place in late August. It was rescheduled for last week, before being rescheduled again. The new hearing date is Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Objections must be filed by Oct. 12. No reason for the delay was provided in court documents. Endo is domiciled in Ireland and has its U.S. headquarters in Malvern, Pa.. The company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last August while dealing with thousands of opioid-related lawsuits and with mountings debts of about $8 billion. The company — which now focuses on specialty pharmaceuticals, sterile injectable drugs and generic medicines — marketed generic pain medicines containing opioids up until late 2016. Its proposed deal to emerge from bankruptcy includes a provision under which the senior lenders agree to fund the almost $600 million in opioid settlements that Endo has agreed to pay to U.S. states and people affected by opioid addiction. The senior lenders have also agreed to establish a trust for future opioid claimants. The transaction has drawn objections from four federal agencies — the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The government said that the deal violates U.S. bankruptcy law because it provides payments to some of the company's creditors, including the opioid claimants, while federal government agencies and other creditors "have been singled out to recover nothing." In its objection, the government agencies called the proposed sale "an abuse of the bankruptcy system that is plainly unlawful and should be rejected by this court." Additionally, the court filing notes, the Department of Justice is pursuing billions of dollars in claims against Endo tied to alleged tax debts, overpayments for the company's medications by the government, and its ongoing criminal investigation into the company's opioid marketing practices.
