Purdue Pharma files for chapter 11 bankruptcy

Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy late last night. The company was facing thousands of lawsuits related to its purported role in fueling the opioid epidemic, and the bankruptcy declaration is part of a larger deal that the company struck with 24 states and thousands of cities and counties across the U.S. The funds from the bankruptcy — which could be as much as $10 billion — will go towards fighting the ongoing opioid crisis, which has killed more than 47,000 people in 2017. Still, many states are opposed to the terms of the deal, and the fight over the settlement in bankruptcy court is expected to be fierce.

What’s still unclear is what this news will mean for individual members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue and have also been named in many lawsuits. Late last week, some $1 billion in wire transfers was tracked by New York prosecutors, suggesting the Sacklers may have been trying to hide their wealth amid all the litigation.