AUGUSTA, Maine — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a controversial Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case that could affect compensation to Maine and residents harmed by the opioid crisis.
At stake is approval of Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy deal in which the Sackler family behind the addictive painkiller OxyContin would pay up to $6 billion to governments and opioid epidemic victims in exchange for protecting the Sacklers, who have not filed for personal bankruptcy, from future lawsuits. State, local and tribal governments along with victims and families of people who became addicted to OxyContin or died from overdoses would receive the compensation over 18 years.
Maine is connected to the case not only because of its overdose issues but also through its former U.S. attorney who played a leading role in warning doctors of OxyContin abuse in 2000 before retiring and then serving as a paid Purdue consultant.
How did the Purdue Pharma case get to the Supreme Court?
The Sackler family controlled Purdue for decades, introducing a reformulated version of oxycodone dubbed OxyContin in 1996 and aggressively marketing it while deceptively claiming it was not addictive.
The Sacklers have not been on the board of Purdue since 2018 and have faced thousands of lawsuits alleging OxyContin helped fuel an epidemic featuring more than 500,000 fatal overdoses over 20 years. No individual family members have been criminally charged.
Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019, but the trustee who oversees bankruptcy cases in New York, Connecticut and Vermont on behalf of the Justice Department and Biden administration objected to last year’s deal in which the Sacklers agreed to pay $6 billion instead of about $4 billion in exchange for not facing further liability.
What did Supreme Court justices say Monday?
Supreme Court justices, who put the bankruptcy deal on hold this summer to review it, had conflicting thoughts Monday. It is not clear when the court will rule on the case.
Justice Neil Gorsuch mentioned “serious” constitutional questions about the settlement, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh said “bankruptcy courts for 30 years have been approving plans like this.”
Justice Elena Kagan noted a large array of the roughly 138,000 plaintiffs have said they support the settlement, but Kagan said it would be “an extraordinary thing” if the court allowed the Sacklers to “basically subvert” the bankruptcy process.
What has Maine received under opioid settlements?
The state reached a $130 million settlement in January 2022 with Johnson & Johnson and other opioid distributors to help Maine towns, cities and schools with addiction-related costs.
Maine was set to receive about $20 million from Sacklers and Purdue as part of the initial settlement, but a spokesperson for Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office said the state does not yet have “certainty” on that amount due to appeals and the pending bankruptcy case.
Gordon Smith, Maine’s opioid response director, deferred to Frey’s office for comment. Frey spokesperson Danna Hayes said the office has not tracked how many Mainers have filed claims in the Purdue bankruptcy case.
What was Jay McCloskey’s connection to Purdue?
Jay McCloskey, who served as U.S. attorney for Maine from 1993 to 2001, was one of the first public officials to warn of OxyContin’s addictive nature when he sent a letter to Maine physicians in February 2000 and held a press conference later that year to announce indictments of 11 people accused of illegally buying and selling OxyContin.
But after retiring from the government role, McCloskey worked for Purdue as a paid consultant until 2004, as several television dramas such as Hulu’s “Dopesick” and Netflix’s “Painkiller” have highlighted.
McCloskey testified in defense of Purdue during a 2007 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing held as part of a criminal trial involving three executives who were not Sackler family members.
“I am convinced that Purdue Pharma made real contributions to suppress the abuse of OxyContin, and I believe that the company went well beyond what any pharmaceutical company…has ever done,” McCloskey testified.
McCloskey did not respond to emails Monday seeking comment on the bankruptcy case. An employee who answered the phone at his Portland law firm said he was out of the office.
How many overdose deaths has Maine seen?
Maine saw its third-straight year of record overdose deaths in 2022, with 723 fatalities. The state is on pace to avoid breaking the record again this year, as 513 fatal overdoses have been reported through October.
Maine reported 10,483 total overdoses in 2022 and 8,259 through October of this year, per state data.
