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A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 12 OctOber 2019
Judge will halt lawsuits against

Purdue Pharma, its owners

By GEOFF MULVIHILL lawsuits. due made last month will
Associated Press That deal came at a price. be the final one. That of-
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — The company agreed it fer includes handing over
A judge is pushing for a set- would put $200 million into the entire company plus at
tlement of more than 2,600 a fund in the next six months least $3 billion from Sackler
lawsuits facing OxyContin to pay for emergency relief relatives over seven years.
maker Purdue Pharma with of a crisis that has been In time, the proposed set-
a decision Friday to pause linked to the deaths of tlement could be worth up
litigation against the com- more than 400,000 people to $12 billion over time.
pany and members of the in the U.S. since 2000. Drain said there was an-
In this Sept. 12, 2019, file photo, cars pass Purdue Pharma head-
quarters in Stamford, Conn. wealthy Sackler family that The deal with the unse- other feature of it: Handing
Associated Press owns the company. cured creditors also calls over control of the com-
In a hearing Friday, U.S. for the Sackler family mem- pany to a trust that would
Bankruptcy Judge Roberts bers to provide financial in- contribute future profits to
Drain contemplated stop- formation. the settlement also means
ping the suits for six months But the committee has not the trustees could make all
before ending up with a accepted the company's the company documents
shorter injunction until Nov. overall settlement offer. public.
6 to allow the parties time "We hope to be getting Some officials have been
to work out what would be things that will help us de- pushing for a way to exam-
needed to keep the litiga- cide whether we support ine fully the company's role
tion on hold so negotiations the settlement," the com- in the opioid crisis.
can continue. mittee's lawyer, Arik Preis, But those benefits did not
Purdue filed for bankruptcy said in court Friday. immediately sell all states
last month as part of a ten- Some of the lawsuits ac- on Drain's decision. In a
tative settlement. But half cuse Sackler family mem- statement, Massachusetts
the states and hundreds bers of fraudulently trans- Attorney General Maura
of local governments have ferring money from Purdue. Healey said she would con-
refused to sign on, leading Drain said states should try tinue "advocating for ac-
to uncertainty about the to resolve their suits through countability and justice."
deal. the negotiations in bank- After the hearing, Lauren
Twenty-five state govern- ruptcy court because Clinton, an assistant attor-
ments asked the judge they could potentially get ney general for the state of
to let suits against Sack- key Sackler information Washington, said, "we con-
ler family members move more quickly this way than tinue to believe what we
ahead. But the judge said through separate suits. said I court" about wanting
that would wipe out the He also said that he can to move ahead with a law-
company's assets. bind the parties to a deal suit against Purdue sched-
"A trial here will simply be to use any money in a set- uled to be tried next year in
an autopsy," Drain said. tlement to deal with a crisis. state court.
The question of allowing He noted that when states For Purdue, though, the
suits to continue is not set- settled with tobacco com- pause was a significant de-
tled, but it got a boost Fri- panies in the late 1990s, velopment.
day. they ended up putting the "The Court's decision is an
Just before the hearing, a money toward other proj- essential next step in pre-
committee of unsecured ects. serving Purdue's assets for
creditors that includes Drain said that lawyers the ultimate benefit of the
opioid crisis victims said it should not assume that the American public. The com-
would support pausing the settlement proposal Pur- pany will work tirelessly and
collaboratively during this
pause in the litigation to
continue to build support
for the settlement struc-
ture," the company said in
a statement.
To work out a longer pause
in suits against the compa-
ny, lawyers said they would
work out ways to monitor
the company's activities
and which parties could
receive more Purdue and
Sackler financial informa-
tion.
While the judge said he
would order the litiga-
tion pause, several states
agreed voluntarily to ad-
here to its terms.q