Henrico votes in favor of Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan
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The Henrico County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution July 13 authorizing County Attorney Tom Tokarz to direct the county’s outside opioid litigation counsel to cast the vote of Henrico in favor of the proposed bankruptcy plan of Purdue Pharma -- the prescription drug maker that produced the opioid pill OxyContin -- and its corporate affiliates.
Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019 related to the liabilities it faces as a result of it's involvement in the marketing and sale of opioids, according to the resolution.
Virginia is one of 15 states that is dropping its opposition to the company’s bankruptcy reorganization plan, according to an article published by NPR that Tokarz cited during the meeting with supervisors.
Negotiations regarding a settlement would protect the company’s owning family, the Sacklers, and its affiliates from additional lawsuits in return for their ownership of Purdue Pharma, a large payout and the release of millions of documents.
All creditors in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy proceeding, which include thousands of plaintiffs across cities, counties and states, were entitled to vote by 10 a.m. on July 14 on the acceptance of the proposed plan to resolve the proceeding.
If the settlement is finalized, Virginia could see an estimated $80 million out of a total amount ranging from $4.5 billion to $5.7 billion, Tokarz said. How the sum would be distributed across the state remains to be seen, he said. Some of the funding could, however, resolve a 2018 lawsuit – one of thousands across the nation – against the company by Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, according to the Times-Dispatch.
Herring sued Purdue Pharma saying the company helped create and prolong Virginia’s opioid epidemic by pushing “nearly 150 million opioid pills and patches into the Commonwealth of Virginia between 2008 to 2017,” as the Citizen previously reported.
Opioids in Henrico accounted for part of this figure, with more than 71 million opioid pills having flowed into the county from 2006 and 2012, according to the Citizen. More than 500,000 Americans died from overdoses of opioids in the last 20 years.
A confirmation hearing for the proposed bankruptcy plan is scheduled for Aug. 9.
The Board’s outside opioid litigation counsel recommended that the Board approve the proposed plan, and Tokarz concurred with this recommendation. Tokarz also recommended approval of the Board paper, and County Manager John Vithoulkas concurred.
