Sackler family members and states objecting to terms of Purdue's bankruptcy reorganization are "close to an agreement in principle" to contribute additional cash beyond the $4.325 billion they had pledged to settle opioid litigation, according to a mediator's interim report filed on Monday.
The judge found the reorganization plan improperly shielded Sackler family members, who had not filed for Chapter 11 themselves, from opioid litigation. The report described marathon negotiating sessions held on Jan. 25-26 in New York that ran more than 12 hours each day and involved two unidentified state attorneys general who participated in person and another who joined by Zoom.
Purdue, the maker of the highly addictive OxyContin opioid painkiller, filed for bankruptcy in 2019 in the face of thousands of lawsuits accusing it and the Sacklers of fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic through deceptive marketing. The opioid abuse crisis has led to nearly 500,000 overdose deaths over two decades, according to U.S. data.