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Category: Purdue Pharma

  • Judge Orders Pause On Suits Against Sacklers, Purdue

    Judge Orders Pause On Suits Against Sacklers, Purdue

    The Sacklers had asked for a months-long stay on lawsuits while they dealt with Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy. 

    A federal judge has put a temporary hold on further lawsuits of Purdue Pharma or the Sackler family, but not as long of a hold as the Sacklers wanted. 

    Robert D. Drain, a bankruptcy judge based in New York, is overseeing the proceedings for Purdue (the maker of OxyContin), part of the company’s settlement in opioid litigation. Drain put a stay in place that will last until November 6.

    According to the New York Times, Drain said that this will keep the parties from unnecessary spending on litigation, but also ensure that the settlement is moving forward. 

    States that oppose the settlement agreement are trying to go after the Sacklers’ personal wealth, which the states argue was gained through their company’s harmful and possibly illegal marketing practices.

    The Sacklers Wanted A Longer Stay To Deal With Bankruptcy

    The Sacklers are contributing $3 billion to the settlement, but states argue that is little compared to the amount the company profited from OxyContin and other prescription drugs. The Sacklers asked for a months-long stay on lawsuits while they dealt with the bankruptcy. 

    The judge, it seemed, ruled in the middle. During the seven-hour hearing, Drain emphasized that the bankruptcy court could craft a binding agreement that would help states reach their ultimate goal: getting damages to help them cover the costs of the opioid crisis. He said that Purdue (and the Sacklers) would not be able to use delay tactics in his court. 

    Midway through the hearing, the Times reported that Drain shouted, “No one wastes time in front of me! Everyone, the debtor first and foremost, would engage in good faith.” 

    Learning From The Big Tobacco Settlement

    Drain pointed out that his court has the power to make a settlement that will dictate what the funds are used for. He pointed out that this could help avoid issues like those that happened with the tobacco settlement, where funds that were intended for smoking prevention were instead used to cover general budget shortcomings. 

    “That could not happen in a bankruptcy plan, because a bankruptcy plan is binding,” he said. 

    The states agreed to voluntarily abide by Drain’s decision, since a federal judge cannot compel states to a certain action. By November 6, the states will have more information from the Sacklers and Purdue, including how much, exactly, the family profited, said William Tong, Connecticut’s Attorney General. 

    “We are disappointed by the court’s ruling, but pleased that it is limited in time to less than 30 days,” he said. “We will use this time to ensure that we get access to the Sacklers’ financial information and will be ready on Nov. 6 to make our case to hold Purdue and the Sacklers accountable.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Could The Purdue Settlement Set The Stage For A Public Pharma System?

    Could The Purdue Settlement Set The Stage For A Public Pharma System?

    “A United States public option for pharmaceutical production would address a range of problems in an industry rife with market failure.”   

    After Purdue Pharma settles its bankruptcy cases, the company will be disbanded and reformed, according to settlement plans. Rather than selling its drugs for profit, the new spin-off company will sell drugs to benefit cities and states devastated by the opioid crisis.

    Purdue will be no more, and a “public beneficiary company” will take its place. 

    Writing for The New Republic, Dana Brown and Isaiah J. Poole of The Democracy Collaborative, argue that this should be a first step in transforming the pharmaceutical industry from public to private. 

    “A United States public option for pharmaceutical production would address a range of problems in an industry rife with market failure,” Brown and Poole write.  

    The Case For Public Pharma

    Unscrupulous tactics like those undertaken by Purdue, the company behind OxyContin, and other opioid manufacturers are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the industry’s problems, they write. There’s the fact that some medications are too expensive for the people who need them the most (including insulin, which has been in the news for high prices). Or, the fact that companies only research drugs that they believe can generate profit. 

    “The case for a public option is simple,” the authors write. “First, publicly owned pharmaceuticals are free of the structural need to appease profit-hungry shareholders and are thus able to focus on public health priorities.”

    Other Countries Have Public Options

    Sweden, Brazil, China and India all have some sort of public pharmaceutical industry and those countries have contributed to global drug development. 

    “These examples expose the emptiness of industry arguments that public involvement in the drug industry will stifle innovation,” Poole and Brown write. In fact, with no need to spend on advertising or to direct profits to investors, a public pharmaceutical company would be better able to invest in research and thus make new innovations, they write. 

    The authors point out that controlling diabetes currently costs about $6,000 per person annually, a cost that has tripled in the past 10 years. A public pharmaceutical company could cut that cost to about $70, according to some analysis. 

    “Coupled with reforms such as a national pharmaceutical institute—which would ensure public investments in medical research can be harnessed for public benefit instead of co-opted exclusively for private profit—these public enterprises would produce both new medications and generics, and could offer them at or even below cost,” Poole and Brown write. 

    Learning From the Big Tobacco Settlement

    The authors point out that little lasting change came from the massive settlement with Big Tobacco in 1998. However, the opioid settlement could be different, if it sparked interest in public pharmaceuticals. 

    Poole and Brown conclude, “The U.S. could once and for all move beyond having to tolerate an industry that subordinates public health to shareholder greed.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • OxyContin Maker Expected To File for Bankruptcy

    OxyContin Maker Expected To File for Bankruptcy

    Purdue Pharma is expected to file for bankruptcy protection as the company reportedly failed to settle thousands of opioid lawsuits against them.

    After years of reaping massive profits from allegedly deceptive marketing practices around its opioid painkillers, Purdue Pharma is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy soon, since negotiations to reach a settlement in the scores of lawsuits against the company have failed. 

    Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein updated attorneys general around the country over the weekend, and their letter was obtained by the Associated Press. 

    “As a result, the negotiations are at an impasse, and we expect Purdue to file for bankruptcy protection imminently,” Slatery and Stein wrote. 

    A spokesperson for Purdue responded, “Purdue declines to comment on that in its entirety.” In March, Reuters first reported that Purdue was exploring bankruptcy, although there was no official word from the company. 

    Filing for Bankruptcy

    If Purdue Pharma does make a move to file for bankruptcy, it would complicate more than 2,000 lawsuits that municipalities and states around the country have filed against the company. It would almost certainly mean that Purdue would not be part of the opioid lawsuit taking place in federal court Ohio. The first trial in that batch is expected to start next month. 

    One speculation is that a bankruptcy payout from Purdue could be worth $10 to $12 billion over time, but others say that the payout could be as little as $1 billion, which is small considering the amount of lawsuits against the company.

    Seeking Damages

    Attorneys vowed that they would continue to seek damages from the company. 

    “Like you, we plan to continue our work to ensure that the Sacklers, Purdue and other drug companies pay for drug addiction treatment and other remedies to help clean up the mess we allege they created,” Slatery and Stein wrote in their letter. 

    In some cases, states are personally suing the Sackler family, which has reportedly pulled billions of dollars out of Purdue and moved that personal wealth offshore. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is among those who plans to sue the Sackler family. 

    “I think they are a group of sanctimonious billionaires who lied and cheated so they could make a handsome profit,” he said. “I truly believe that they have blood on their hands.”

    Shapiro took to Twitter Saturday to emphasize his point. 

    “The Sacklers pioneered our #OpioidEpidemic,” he wrote. “They have blood on their hands. And on behalf of PA’ns, I will sue them personally, so that we can dig into their personal pockets & retrieve some of the money they made. We need this for treatment and other life saving efforts.”

    View the original article at thefix.com