OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP has made significant progress toward a sweeping settlement with members of the Sackler family who own the drugmaker, but needs more time to continue working on a deal, a court-appointed mediator said Thursday.
Shelley Chapman, a retired bankruptcy judge who is one of two mediators overseeing the settlement talks, said during a court hearing in New York there are still a number of issues that must be resolved before a deal is reached. However, there has been “substantial and meaningful movement” toward a settlement, she said.
“The parties are getting closer and closer by the day and the remaining open issues, in our view, are resolvable,” Chapman said.
Following Chapman’s report, Judge Sean Lane said on Thursday afternoon he would grant Purdue’s request to extend an injunction protecting Sackler family members from civil lawsuits accusing them of helping fuel the nation’s opioid addiction crisis through Dec. 2.
The injunction has been extended multiple times since the US Supreme Court scuttled an previous $6 billion settlement earlier this year, a deal challenged by the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog. In court filings, Purdue said permitting lawsuits against the Sacklers now would delay “or destroy” any potential consensual resolution of the litigation.
Chapman and co-mediator Eric Green are aiming to come to a settlement that the gamut of Purdue stakeholders — including opioid victims, hospitals, state attorneys general and other government authorities across the country — will support.
Sackler family members have denied wrongdoing in court filings and said in June they support “a resolution that provides substantial resources to help combat a complex public health crisis.”
Lane extended the injunction days after approving a request from a committee representing Purdue creditors to give the body sole authority to bring civil claims against Sackler family members if settlement talks fail. The committee has supported the settlement talks and injunction extensions.
The case is Purdue Pharma LP, number 19-23649, US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
(Updates to include information about Judge Sean Lane’s ruling in fourth and last paragraphs.)
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Isabella Farr
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