Opioid Analgesics Cause Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths in the US

Purdue Pharma, manufacturer of the opioid analgesic OxyContin (oxycodone hydrochloride), filed for bankruptcy this week, under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act in White Plains, New York.

Such an announcement followed a tentative agreement with 24 of the 50 states in the country and more than a thousand local governments, after almost all of the North American territories and a large number of local authorities accused the company of causing the opioid addiction crisis, which caused almost 400 thousand deaths from 1999 to 2017.

Purdue Pharma board president Steve Miller told CNBC that bankruptcy and the tentative agreement to resolve massive opioid lawsuits were the 'only way' to help crisis victims as quickly as possible.

As part of the agreement, Purdue would be restructured into an entity known as a public benefit trust, which will cost the company and its billionaire owners, the Sackler family, about

$10 billion.

This figure includes three billion dollars of the personal fortune of the Sacklers, and the family also agreed to sell their pharmaceutical company based in the United Kingdom, Mundipharma, which should contribute another 1.5 billion dollars.

'This framework of solution avoids wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and years in prolonged litigation and, instead, will provide billions of dollars and critical resources to communities across the country trying to cope with the opioid crisis,' Miller said in a statement.

However, the head said that the company does not intend to admit irregularities in its actions, one of the points that are conflicting for many claimants who have not signed the agreement, including 24 states that for the moment refuse to do so.

The attorneys general of Massachusetts, California, Connecticut and New Jersey, among other territories, condemned the agreement when the details were made public and promised to continue with the actions against the pharmaceutical company.

The USA Today newspaper indicated that some specialists question whether the plaintiffs will ever see the 12 billion dollars that must result from bankruptcy and the announced pact, which in practice means that the Sacklers renounce ownership of the company.

It is unacceptable that Purdue Pharma can escape full public responsibility through corporate bankruptcy, and its executives, who broke the law, should go to prison, independent senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wrote on Twitter.

A similar criterion was disclosed by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who argued that in addition to being prosecuted by a bankruptcy court, the pharmaceutical company should respond to criminal proceedings.



ef/rr/mar