From Charleston Gazette-Mail:
Were he alive today, British wordsmith Samuel Johnson might remark that bankruptcy is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
That will be the final refuge for Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, which made billions off of the development and marketing of OxyContin, the drug that began the avalanche that became the opioid crisis.
Facing more than 2,000 lawsuits from communities, individuals and states (including West Virginia) ravaged by the epidemic that, as of 2017, had a hand in more than 400,000 overdose deaths, Purdue Pharma filed for Chapter 11 protection on Sunday. A proposal put forth by the pharmaceutical giant would have the company placed in a trust, paying out somewhere around $10 billion to settle the lawsuits. …
