NEW YORK, Oct 21 (Reuters) - More than 99% of bankrupt drugmaker Purdue Pharma's creditors voted to accept a $7.4 billion settlement of legal claims related to the company's sales of addictive opioid medication, the company said Tuesday.
The vote puts the company one step closer to concluding a years-long bankruptcy restructuring, after the U.S. Supreme Court forced the company to scale back legal protections for its owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family. Purdue will seek final approval of its revised bankruptcy settlement at a court hearing in November.
"The high level of support for this Plan is gratifying after years of intense work with our creditors to craft a settlement that maximizes value for victims and communities and puts billions of dollars to work for the public good," Purdue's board chairman Steve Miller said in a statement.
Purdue's latest plan does not fully protect the Sacklers from opioid litigation. Creditors that choose not to accept payment from the bankruptcy settlement can choose to instead litigate claims against the company's owners. That process remains ongoing, Purdue said.
The Sacklers, who are contributing at least $6.5 billion to the settlement, have said they have strong legal defenses against opioid lawsuits, including the argument that they are not directly and personally responsible for the company's opioid sales. Members of the Sackler family have expressed regret for their company's role in the opioid addiction crisis in the U.S., but denied wrongdoing.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 in the face of thousands of lawsuits accusing it and members of the Sackler family of fueling the epidemic through deceptive marketing of its highly addictive pain medicine. The company pleaded guilty to misbranding and fraud charges related to its marketing of OxyContin in 2007 and 2020.
Purdue said its bankruptcy plan is the only major opioid settlement to set aside a meaningful amount of money for individual victims of the opioid crisis, who are entitled to receive as much as $850 million from the broader settlement fund. Over 54,000 individuals with personal injury claims voted to accept the settlement, and 218 voted against, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Other opioid settlements with drugmakers, pharmacy chains, and drug distributors have raised over $50 billion in recent years. Most of that money is set aside for state and local governments in the U.S.
Purdue Pharma, Sacklers reach $7.4 billion national opioid settlement
US Supreme Court Purdue ruling makes mass litigation tougher to resolve in bankruptcy
Reporting by Dietrich Knauth
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