Purdue Pharma's Sackler family to receive full immunity from opioid lawsuits, court rules

A federal appeals court ruling, on Tuesday, cleared the way for billionaire owners of the Purdue Pharma group, the Sacklers' settlement of all civil legal claims over playing a part in the company’s prescription opioids business.

The court ruling provides the owners of the company with the comprehensive shield that it has been requesting for years.

The family will have to pay up to $6 billion as a settlement amount to resolve accusations that OxyContin maker and its owners were behind the tainted USopioid epidemic and to deal with the unremitting ravages of the opioid crisis.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

According to legal experts, the new ruling will close the doors on Purdue’s fiercely contested bankruptcy restructuring, which started nearly four years ago.

As per a New York Times report, Purdue Pharma would be revamped into a new commodity, named Knoa Pharma, which will make medicines for addiction reversal and treatment and will also continue to produce other drugs, including OxyContin.

“It’s time to put this bankruptcy behind us. Victims have been waiting for too long to recover,” New York Times quoted Ryan Hampton, an advocate for opioid victims who served as the co-chairman of the Purdue creditor’s committee, as saying.

He added: “The system is far from perfect, but the true injustice will be if this victims’ settlement is held up any longer.”

But others said the Sacklers had received a significant pass. “Bankruptcy was not meant to be an alternative justice system for powerful corporations and their superrich owners. But that is the effect and perception when courts read the law to provide extraordinary protections well beyond what Congress authorized,” said Melissa B. Jacoby, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Judge Eunice C. Lee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that the bankruptcy code allows corporate owners, who haven’t filed for personal bankruptcy, to receive liability protection under certain circumstances.

“Bankruptcy is inherently a creature of competing interests, compromises, and less than perfect outcomes,” she wrote. “Because of these defining characteristics, total satisfaction of all that is owed, whether in money or in justice, rarely occurs.”

Purdue calls the decision 'a victory'

After the ruling was issued, Pudue released a statement calling the decision “a victory for Purdue’s creditors, including the states, local governments and victims who overwhelmingly support the plan of reorganization.”

“Our focus going forward is to deliver billions of dollars of value for victim compensation, opioid crisis abatement and overdose rescue medicines,” the statement continued. “Our creditors understand the plan is the best option to help those who need it most, the fairest and expeditious way to resolve the litigation and the only way to deliver billions of dollars in value specifically to fund opioid crisis abatement efforts.”

The families issued a joint statement saying, “The Sackler families believe the long-awaited implementation of this resolution is critical to providing substantial resources for people and communities in need. We are pleased with the Court’s decision to allow the agreement to move forward and look forward to it taking effect as soon as possible.”

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE