oxycontin Archives

Purdue Oxy Settlement Offer Greeted With WTH

Company Offers to "Pay" Part of Settlement with Addiction Pharmaceuticals While the Sackler family has upped the ante, the settlement is met with some groans and skepticism. Jessica Hartogs, Editor at LinkedIn News: "Purdue Pharma has offered up a $10 billion restructuring plan that would pay $500 million up front to settle approximately 135,000 claims linked to the company's role in the opioid epidemic. The Sackler family would pay more than $4 billion over a decade and also give up domestic ownership of the company, which is alleged to have fueled the deadly national opioid crisis with its OxyContin drug. They would also admit no wrongdoing. Two dozen state attorneys general immediately rejected the plan, reported NPR." Charlie Kingdollar, Retired Emerging Issues Officer at Gen Re: Members of the Sackler family offered roughly $4.3 billion to resolve sprawling opioid litigation, up from $3 billion initially proposed in settlement discussions. Siladitya Ray, Staff Writer, Forbes: "The new settlement plan put forth by the Sacklers is $1.3 billion higher than their original offer and if approved it will be used to reimburse states, local governments, Native American tribes and other plaintiffs who have successfully sued Purdue for its role in fueling the opioid crisis... As part of the proposal, the $4.28 billion from the Sacklers will be paid in installments over [...]

Attorney General Ferguson of Washington Sues State’s Top Opioid Distributers

March 20th, 2019|Categories: Emerging Litigation & Risk, HB Risk Notes, HB Tort Notes|Tags: Attorney General, Lawsuit, Opioids, oxycontin, purdue pharma, Washington AG, Washington opioids|

“We are woefully under-resourced when it comes to treatment. The people who are responsible for this epidemic should being paying for it. We are going to hold these companies accountable and get more money into our communities for treatment.” --Washington AG Bob Ferguson The three largest distributors of prescription opioids in Washington State are being sued by Attorney General Bob Ferguson for fueling the state's opioid epidemic. Detailed in Ferguson's King County lawsuit are the billions of dollars made from these suspicious shipments of over 2 billion pills of unregulated oxycodone, fentanyl, hydrocodone and other opioids. "Prescriptions and sales of opioids in Washington skyrocketed more than 500 percent between 1997 and 2011. In 2011, at the peak of overall sales in Washington, more than 112 million daily doses of all prescription opioids were dispensed in the state — enough for a 16-day supply for every woman, man and child in Washington," according to the AG's announcement. "In 2014 McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen shipped enough opioids to Pend Orielle County to supply every single resident with dozens of pills. In 2009, McKesson alone supplied enough for dozens of pills for every resident of the county. The specific shipment numbers are currently under seal." The accused distributors are in the top 15 Fortune 500 list based on 2017 revenue. In addition to the [...]