States Urge Federal Judge to Reject Purdue Pharma Settlement

Five states urged a federal judge in a court hearing Tuesday to reject Purdue Pharma’s settlement plan regarding its alleged role in fueling the opioid crisis.

In a September ruling, Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved the $10 billion bankruptcy proposal, meant to settle thousands of lawsuits charging the Sackler family-owned company with aggressive and deceptive marketing of its painkiller Oxycontin (oxycodone).

But since then, several states and the Department of Justice have been seeking to stop the settlement, charging that the Sacklers weren’t held sufficiently accountable.

The Sacklers “steered their company into bankruptcy after depleting its value and then conditioned any contribution from their personal fortune on a lifetime legal shield,” said Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson ahead of Tuesday’s hearing in federal bankruptcy court.