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Rhode Island Reaches $107M Opioid Settlements with Teva and Allergan

Submitted by ckanon@abi.org on
Rhode Island's attorney general announced settlements he valued at $107 million against drugmakers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and AbbVie's Allergan unit to resolve claims over their roles in fueling an opioid epidemic in the state, Reuters reported. The settlements include $28.5 million in cash, plus the delivery to Rhode Island of anti-overdose treatments - 1 million Naloxone sprays and 67,000 bottles of Suboxone pills - over 10 years. Israel-based Teva, the world's largest generic drug company, called its settlement "a critical step forward in getting life-saving treatments to the people who need them." It said it was still "actively" negotiating a national settlement. The settlement was reached just as Rhode Island was prepared to take Teva to trial. Jury selection began last week, and opening arguments were set to begin on Monday. The Rhode Island lawsuit is one of more than 3,300 filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments across the country accusing drugmakers of minimizing the addiction risks of opioid pain medications. More than 500,000 people have died due to opioid overdoses in the past two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rhode Island valued Teva's contributed medicines at $78.5 million. The company reached a similar $225 million settlement recently with Texas, which included $75 million in contributed drugs.
Article Tags
Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity
Health Care
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Sri Lanka Bondholders Tap Legal Adviser for Sovereign-Debt Restructuring Talks

Submitted by ckanon@abi.org on
A group of investors in Sri Lanka’s sovereign bonds has hired law firm White & Case LLP to advise on debt negotiations as the indebted island nation contends with a severe economic downturn and growing political unrest, WSJPro reported. The ad hoc group reportedly includes bondholders from BlackRock Inc. and Ashmore Group PLC. The group has yet to hire a financial adviser. Sri Lanka is facing a balance of payments crisis as the country’s foreign-exchange reserves have declined by more than half since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nation spends foreign exchange to import many of the goods it needs to power its economy. Revenue from tourism, one of the country’s most important sources of foreign exchange, has declined in large part due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, remittances from Sri Lankans living abroad have dropped while a black market for foreign currencies has grown, economists say. The Sri Lankan government owed more than $16 billion to international bondholders as of April 2021, according to government data. It also owed around $3 billion directly to China as well as to Japan, and around $1 billion to India. Sri Lanka also has outstanding debt to institutional creditors such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. In total, Sri Lanka’s public debt to gross domestic product ratio in 2021 hovered at just below 120%, according to International Monetary Fund projections.
Article Tags
Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity
International Insolvency
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Global Economy Sinks Deeper Into Turmoil as Fed Prepares to Raise Rates

Submitted by ckanon@abi.org on
When Federal Reserve officials raise interest rates on Wednesday, they will do so amid an unfortunate economic reality: Many of the inflationary pressures they had long assumed would dissipate have instead lingered, and some are getting worse, the New York Times reported. Central bankers have consistently underestimated how high inflation would rise, and how long it would last, as the economy has surged back from pandemic shutdowns. They will release a fresh set of quarterly economic projections Wednesday, in which they are likely to raise their inflation forecasts for the fifth time in a row. Like many private sector forecasters, the Fed misjudged how strong American demand would be for goods and how long that demand would help to keep global supply chains running behind schedule, forces that have combined to push up consumer prices. Officials spent much of the past year expecting a relatively quick return to some pandemic-infused version of normality, but backlogged factories, crowded ports and overburdened trucking companies are still failing to catch up. Repeated waves of the virus have exacerbated the problems, which along with rising wages and services prices have sent inflation higher. Consumer price gains hit a new 40-year high in February, pushed up by rising prices for food, rent and gas. Now, as Fed officials prepare to begin a series of interest rate increases to try to bring inflation under control, they again appear to be aiming at a moving target. Supply chains that showed signs of improvement in January and February are being thrown further into disarray by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sweeping lockdowns in China, developments that promise to lengthen delivery times and add to prices.
Article Tags
Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity
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Vermont's $36 Million Settlement with Purdue Pharma and Sacklers Moves Ahead

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Vermont’s receipt of its share of a national settlement with Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, cleared its first hurdle when the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York determined that the settlement did not violate the Bankruptcy Code, the Vermont Business Magazine reported. Under the settlement agreement, Vermont is to receive $36.4 million and up to an additional $1.454 million if certain conditions are met. The settlement is conditioned on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturning an earlier District Court. The result will be a nearly three-fold increase over the $12.58 million allocated to Vermont in Purdue’s original bankruptcy plan — a plan that Attorney General T.J. Donovan objected to and appealed in December 2021. Donovan has been fighting to hold the industry accountable for its role in promoting and profiting from the opioid crisis since 2017 when his office began investigating opioid manufacturers and distributors. The settlement with Purdue and the Sacklers, which Vermont agreed to in principle last week, follows last month’s final approval of a $64 million agreement with opioid distributors and Johnson & Johnson and a settlement of $1.5 million with McKinsey in 2021. The total amount of opioid settlements negotiated by Donovan is now more than $100 million for Vermont.
Article Tags
Plan Confirmation
Business Reorganization
Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity
Mass Torts
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Embattled Federal Reserve Pick Raskin Withdraws Nomination

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Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew her nomination to a position on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors after a key Democrat had joined with all Senate Republicans to oppose her confirmation, the Associated Press reported. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced that he opposed Raskin’s confirmation, and all Republicans in the evenly-split 50-50 Senate had indicated that they planned to block her nomination for the position of the Fed’s top banking regulator. Republicans have argued that Raskin would use the Fed’s regulatory authority to discourage banks from lending to oil and gas companies. Democrats, as well as many banking executives, countered that Raskin’s views aren’t out of the mainstream and said she simply wants the Fed to consider the risks that climate change poses to banks, insurance companies and other financial firms. President Joe Biden, who nominated Raskin in January, said she had “unparalleled experience” in areas like cybersecurity, climate change, and consumer protection. Raskin’s nomination had been stuck in the Senate Banking Committee after Republicans unanimously refused to vote on it in an effort to prevent her being approved on a party-line vote. Raskin previously served as Fed governor from 2010 through 2014 and then as the deputy Treasury secretary. She was approved unanimously by the Senate to both positions.
Article Tags
Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity
SEC Issues
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U.S. to Spend $725 Million This year on Abandoned Coal Mine Cleanup

Submitted by jhartgen@abi.org on

The Biden administration said yesterday that $725 million in federal funds would be available to states this year to clean up abandoned coal mines, one of several initiatives aimed at reducing pollution from decades of fossil fuel development, Reuters reported. The money represents a portion of the $11.3 billion allocated to mine reclamation in the infrastructure law that Congress passed last year. The program is part of President Joe Biden's pledge to create jobs and improve health and safety while combating climate change. The Interior Department said that it will distribute $725 million every year for the next 15 years to states and tribes based on their needs. For fiscal year 2022, the funding is available to 22 states and the Navajo Nation. Such work could include closing dangerous mine shafts, reclaiming unstable slopes, treating acid mine drainage, and restoring water supplies damaged by mining, Interior said. Pennsylvania is eligible for the most funding, nearly $245 million, followed by West Virginia, Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio. The allocations are based on the number of tons of coal historically produced in each state before the 1977 passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which created a fund for the cleanup of abandoned mine lands.

Article Tags
Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity
Mass Torts
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