The owners of the Purdue laboratory were expected to escape the prosecutions in exchange for the payment of $ 4.5 billion. Purdue markets oxycontin, causing a real overdose epidemic.
Le Monde with AFP
An American judge invalidated Thursday, December 16, the Bankruptcy Plan of Purdue, the laboratory accused of contributing to the opiate crisis in the United States, because it provided for some immunity for its owners, the Sackler family, in exchange for the payment of $ 4.5 billion.
In its decision, Colleen McMahon believes that the bankruptcy judge who endorsed the agreement in September did not have the authority to prevent future civil laws against family members. Purdue has in the strip announced, in a statement, its intention to appeal.
The plan had received support from an overwhelming majority of the company’s creditors as well as more than 40 US states. But several parties had decided to appeal, including a representative of the Ministry of Justice and nine States. The agreement, they argued, did not allow victims to be heard and possibly complained against the Sackl.
The American Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, welcomed the decision made on Thursday, considering in a statement that the Bankruptcy Tribunal “did not have the right to deprive victims of the right opiate crisis to pursue the Sackler family “.
“This is a huge victory for justice and the obligation to account, which will reopen the deeply tainted bankruptcy of purdue and force the Sackler family to face the pain and devastation it caused”, has also reacted the state prosecutor of Connecticut, William Tong, who appealed.
More than 500,000 dead in twenty years
The aggressive promotion of the Oxycontin anti-pain drug by purdue, pushed by the Sackler family, which knew, however, very addictive, is considered by many as the trigger of the opioid crisis, the origin of more than 500 000. by overdose in twenty years in the United States.
Purdue, Sackler and Oxycontin have become the symbols of the excess of a pharmaceutical industry ready to move profits. The Purdue laboratory had declared itself in cessation of payment in September 2019, offering a bankruptcy plan to pay the avalanche of litigation against it and accepting plead guilty.
In its decision, McMahon J. recognizes that the invalidation of the immunity granted to Sackler, “will almost certainly lead to the cancellation of a carefully developed plan” which contains positive elements, such as funding for programs. Fight against opiate dependence.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Purdue, Steve Miller, has raised that this decision “will delay, and perhaps put an end to the capacity of creditors, communities and individuals to receive billions of dollars to mitigate the opiate crisis “. But “since the Bankruptcy Code does not confer such authority, the decision confirming the plan must be abandoned,” said the judge.
The plan provided that the company closes its doors by 2024 for the benefit of a new entity managed by a Trust. In addition to the sale of Oxycontin for “legitimate” purposes, it had to provide, free of charge or costly, anti-overdose drugs and treatments against opiate dependence. Members of the Sackler family had committed $ 4.32 billion in addition to the 225 million already paid to the Department of Justice.