The Sackler family, owners of the American laboratory Purdue, accused of having contributed to the opiate crisis in the United States, have offered to pay up to 6 billion dollars to the victims to end an avalanche of litigation, according to a document judicial published this Friday. This new offer revises upwards their previous proposal, which was 4.5 billion, as part of Purdue’s bankruptcy plan.
This had been invalidated by a judge in December because it would have prevented possible future civil proceedings against the family members. Under the terms of the new agreement, the Sackler family “would pay, in full, no less than 5.5 billion dollars and up to 6 billion,” details a document sent to a New York bankruptcy court on Friday.
More than 500,000 dead in twenty years
If this new plan has received the support of a majority of the parties involved, the eight American states and Washington, which had appealed the first agreement, must also approve it for it to be ratified, warns Judge Shelley Chapman. The funds should be used “exclusively for the fight against the opiate crisis, in particular the support and assistance to survivors, victims and their families”, specifies the text.
The aggressive promotion of the painkiller OxyContin by Purdue, pushed by the Sackler family who knew it was very addictive, is considered by many to be the trigger for the opiate crisis, the cause of more than 500,000 deaths by overdose in twenty years in the United States. United States.
Purdue, the Sacklers and OxyContin have become symbols of the excesses of a pharmaceutical industry desperate to make a profit. The Purdue laboratory had declared itself insolvent in September 2019, proposing a bankruptcy plan to settle the avalanche of litigation against it and agreeing to plead guilty.
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