Hawaii Attorney General Clare E. Connors today expressed disappointment when reacting to the plan Purdue Pharma filed in bankruptcy court. Along with 22 other states, Attorney General Connors released the below statement:
“We are disappointed in this plan. While it contains improvements over the proposal that Purdue announced and we rejected in September 2019, it falls short of the accountability that families and survivors deserve.” Said AG Conners
“Our states investigated Purdue and the Sacklers and filed the lawsuits that took down their criminal enterprise. During the bankruptcy, our states worked together, across party lines, to force Purdue to turn over millions of pages of evidence and to question the Sacklers under oath. We also joined with every state and thousands of cities and towns to ensure that every dollar states recover is dedicated to addressing the opioid crisis.”
“Now, the Sacklers and Purdue need to own up to their decades of misconduct and their role in creating this crisis.”
The plan, filed late on Monday night in US bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, after months of negotiations, is a formal offer to settle more than 2,900 lawsuits from state and local governments, Native American tribes, hospitals and other entities.
“The Sacklers became billionaires by causing a national tragedy. Now they’re trying to get away with it,” the Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey, said. “We’re going to keep fighting for the accountability that families all across this country deserve.”
Purdue began selling the painkiller OxyContin 25 years ago, encouraging doctors to drop long-held reservations about opioids and focus more on easing the pain of patients. Court documents show company officials continued to push to maintain sales even as it became clear the drug was being abused.
The true size of the family’s fortune is unclear. An earlier court filing said family members received transfers of $12bn to $13bn from Purdue over the years, though a lawyer said much of that went to taxes or was reinvested in the company. In letters to the US House oversight committee last week, the two branches of the family that own the company said the family members who were board members had net assets of far less – about $1.1bn.
More than 470,000 deaths in the US since 2000 have been linked to opioids, including both prescription drugs and illegal ones such as heroin and fentanyl. The US topped 50,000 opioid-related overdose deaths for the first time in 2019, and several states last year reported a record pace of overdose deaths due to all drugs.
Individual victims and their families would share $700m to $750m over time. With nearly 135,000 such claims, that would work out to average payments under $5,600. Personal injury payments are expected to range from $3,500 to $48,000.
Connerʻs believes Purdue needs to amend its plan to provide for:
- A prompt and orderly wind-down of the company that does not excessively entangle it with states and other creditors.
- Additional value from the Sacklers to creditors, including the states, to confront the opioid crisis that is causing so much pain.
- Transparency in the form of robust document disclosures so the public understands the extent of Purdue’s and the Sacklers’ misconduct to make sure it never happens again.
- Protections for nonprofits over naming rights for charitable gifts.
“Right now, millions of people across the country are desperately suffering from opioid addiction. They need help and they need it now,” read the joint statement issued by nearly half of the country’s state attorneys general.
Attorney General Connors is joined by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Trials in state and federal cases are scheduled to begin this year in California, New York, Ohio and West Virginia. Separately, Purdue has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and settled civil complaints. The company’s federal agreement is valued at more than $8bn. But the US said the company had to pay it only $225m as long as company funds are used to abate the opioid crisis. The plan filed on Monday appears to comply.
