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Opioid Talks Fail, Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Filing Expected

Associated Press

   CLEVELAND, OHIO - OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is expected to file for
   bankruptcy after settlement talks over the nation's deadly overdose
   crisis hit an impasse, attorneys general involved in the talks said
   Saturday.

   The breakdown puts the first federal trial over the opioid epidemic on
   track to begin next month, likely without Purdue, and sets the stage
   for a complex legal drama involving nearly every state and hundreds of
   local governments.

   Purdue, the family that owns the company and a group of state attorneys
   general had been trying for months to find a way to avoid trial and
   determine Purdue's responsibility for a crisis that has cost 400,000
   American lives in the past two decades.

   Family rejects two offers

   An email from the attorneys general of Tennessee and North Carolina,
   obtained by The Associated Press, said that Purdue and the Sackler
   family had rejected two offers from the states over how payments under
   any settlement would be handled and that the family declined to offer
   counterproposals.

   "As a result, the negotiations are at an impasse, and we expect Purdue
   to file for bankruptcy protection imminently," Tennessee Attorney
   General Herbert Slatery and North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein
   wrote in their message, which was sent to update attorneys general
   throughout the country on the status of the talks.

   Purdue spokeswoman Josephine Martin said, "Purdue declines to comment
   on that in its entirety."

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