Drug maker Mallinckrodt Plc made its final push Wednesday for a new debt-reduction plan that gives victims of America’s opioid epidemic about $1 billion less than they were promised the last time the company tried to use the bankruptcy process to revive itself, Bloomberg News reported. The company asked Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey to dismiss objections from shareholders who argue that Mallinckrodt should have tried harder to resolve its debt woes without filing a chapter 11 case. Under the plan, shareholders will be wiped out, which happens in nearly all big bankruptcies unless creditors are paid in full. Judge Dorsey said he would announce his ruling next week. During the court hearing yesterday in Wilmington, Del., Judge Dorsey aimed skeptical questions at attorneys for shareholders, who argued the company had enough cash to survive until early 2024. Dorsey said current law only requires Mallinckrodt, or any other struggling company, to be in financial distress, not completely insolvent. “The only evidence I have,” Judge Dorsey told a shareholder attorney, “is that if they didn’t file this bankruptcy, they would have been in trouble.”
