The Supreme Court put OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy settlement on hold Thursday in an order siding with the Biden administration’s request to reexamine provisions shielding the Sackler family from liability.
The single-page order does not contain a breakdown of the nine justices’ votes; it directs the parties to present their arguments before the high court in December.
The billionaire Sackler family, which controlled the pharmaceutical supplier since it was founded, has long been accused of unethically profiting off its addictive painkiller and fueling the nation’s opioid epidemic.
In 2021, the company reached a reorganization agreement that would dissolve Purdue and establish a new company, Knoa Pharma. The new company would “operate in a responsible and sustainable manner, taking into account long-term public health interests related to the opioid crisis,” Purdue Pharma announced at the time.
The Sacklers would relinquish control of the new corporate entity.
The deal was later amended to boost to $6 billion the amount the Sackler family would have to pay to settle lawsuits stemming from the opioid crisis. In exchange, the family demanded immunity from liability in future civil lawsuits.
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