Opioid settlement reported, but Healey is silent
Photo | SHNS
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who sued OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, wouldn't comment Wednesday on reports of a possible $12 billion settlement that would resolve thousands of lawsuits targeting the company for its role in the opioid epidemic.
Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, are reportedly in talks with state attorneys general and others around settling more than 2,000 lawsuits against the company. Purdue and the Sacklers are expected to settle for $10 billion to $12 billion, according to reports by multiple media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post and NBC News.
Healey declined to comment Wednesday on the news of a possible settlement, as did Gov. Charlie Baker. Healey's office did not respond to questions about whether Healey, who has not held a public event in more than a month, has been among the group of state attorneys general meeting in Cleveland to discuss a settlement.
In June 2018, Healey filed the first state lawsuit against individual members of the Sackler family as well as Purdue Pharma, alleging that they "engaged in a deadly, deceptive scheme to sell opioids in Massachusetts" and profited from the drug epidemic they helped create.
[Related: Worcester pharmacies stocked 49 million prescription opioids in years leading up to crisis]
Healey announced the lawsuit in June 2018 while standing alongside Baker and six poster boards that displayed the first names of the 11,169 people in Massachusetts who died from opioid overdoses from 2008 through 2017.
Healey's complaint alleges that Purdue "created the epidemic and profited from it through a web of illegal deceit" by deceiving doctors and patients to get more people on their drugs, at "higher and more dangerous doses" and for longer periods of time, as well as by deploying falsehoods to keep patients away from "safer alternatives."
A total of 671 Massachusetts residents who filled prescriptions for Purdue opioids since 2009 later died of an opioid overdose, according to the suit. According to Healey's office, Purdue sent sales representatives to Massachusetts doctors, offices, clinics and hospitals more than 150,000 times since 2008.
"You would think that at some point in time, the people who are at the heart of this would realize the pain and the agony that they had created and step back," Baker said last year when the suit was announced. "They chose to do just the opposite and double down, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the work that's been done by the attorney general to put these people where they belong, which is in a courtroom and in a deposition and in a process that will force them to own up to the decisions they made in the wreckage they left behind."
[Related: Mass. opioid deaths down 11% this year]
Under the settlement framework described to NBC News and later to the New York Times, the Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and restructure itself as a "public beneficiary trust." All future profits from the company would flow to the plaintiffs, namely state and local governments that have sued Purdue.
The company would also provide the addiction treatment drugs that it has under development to the public at no cost, the Times reported. In addition, the Sackler family would relinquish ownership and control of Purdue Pharma and pay an additional $3 billion of their own money towards the settlement.
Purdue Pharma on Tuesday said it is "prepared to defend itself vigorously in the opioid litigation" but is discussing a settlement because it "sees little good coming from years of wasteful litigation and appeals" and "the people and communities affected by the opioid crisis need help now."
"Purdue believes a constructive global resolution is the best path forward, and the company is actively working with the state attorneys general and other plaintiffs to achieve this outcome," the company said in a statement.
A federal judge in Cleveland is overseeing more than 2,000 lawsuits filed against the Sacklers and Purdue. About 10 states have been involved in negotiations in Cleveland, the Times reported.
Though Healey's office would not say whether she has been part of the talks, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong "was part of a group of attorneys general who met last week in Cleveland, where outlines of a deal were discussed," the outlet CT Mirror reported.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments