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OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is expected to file for bankruptcy after settlement talks over the nation's deadly overdose crisis hit an impasse, attorneys general involved in the talks said Saturday.
The breakdown puts the first federal trial over the opioid epidemic on track to begin next month, likely without Purdue, and sets the stage for a complex legal drama involving nearly every state and hundreds of local governments.
Purdue, the family that owns the company and a group of state attorneys general had been trying for months to find a way to avoid trial and determine Purdue's responsibility for a crisis that has cost 400,000 American lives over the past two decades.
An email from the attorneys general of Tennessee and North Carolina, obtained by The Associated Press, said that Purdue and the Sackler family had rejected two offers from the states over how payments under any settlement would be handled and that the family declined to offer counterproposals.
"As a result, the negotiations are at an impasse, and we expect Purdue to file for bankruptcy protection imminently," Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein wrote in their message, which was sent to update attorneys general throughout the country on the status of the talks.
[...] The impasse in the talks comes about six weeks before the scheduled start of the first federal trial under the Cleveland litigation, overseen by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster. That trial will hear claims about the toll the opioid epidemic has taken on two Ohio counties, Cuyahoga and Summit.
A bankruptcy filing by Purdue would most certainly remove the company from that trial.
The bankruptcy judge would have wide discretion on how to proceed. That could include allowing the claims against other drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies to move ahead while Purdue's cases are handled separately. Three other manufacturers have already settled with the two Ohio counties to avoid the initial trial.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 10 2019, @07:09AM (4 children)
Some of us do drugs for our physical health. As in the kind where the doctor looks at the x-rays and says, "Yeah, that's almost bone on bone. How are you still walking?" and I reply, "the hydrocodone really does help, Doc." Of course, I don't get any of that horrible horrible life-permitting stuff anymore.
Soon I'll probably be using the medical marijuana. Since every pot smoker I ever met was a, well, pothead (that is, moron), I suppose I'll soon have to send back my Mensa card. At least maybe I'll finally start to fit in down at the Walmart once my brain dies.
I know you're all tired of my AC bitching about this. Soon I'll be too stupid to type and you won't have to read about it anymore.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 10 2019, @11:19AM (1 child)
And then out of desperation you turn to hypnosis and discover you can teach your brain to ignore the pain signals. Then you attempt to rebuild your life while hating the medical industry. A few months of $100 sessions or a life long drug additction with side effects. Your choice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 11 2019, @05:37AM
I'm teaching my brain to ignore stupid posts but it won't stick. Any suggestions?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rupert Pupnick on Tuesday September 10 2019, @05:19PM
Seriously? I think you might be overreacting a bit.
Has every non-pot smoker you've ever met been someone who completely abstains from cannabis?
How could you tell without asking?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 10 2019, @05:58PM
Yes, you'll become a walking stereotype as soon as you touch the devil's lettuce.
Or maybe you're just becoming a senile old man and that's why you need help to eat jello.