Sack­lers threat­en to walk away from Pur­due opi­oid set­tle­ment as anger builds over im­mu­ni­ty pro­vi­sions — re­port

Pur­due Phar­ma has been ne­go­ti­at­ing with the gov­ern­ment for months over how much it should owe for its role in the opi­oid cri­sis, in a plan that’s seen the com­pa­ny de­clare bank­rupt­cy and plead guilty to three crim­i­nal charges.

But the wealthy Sack­lers who own Pur­due are now re­port­ed­ly threat­en­ing to walk away from the deal should a broad le­gal shield pro­tect­ing the fam­i­ly be dropped.

In what’s be­lieved to be the first-ever court­room ap­pear­ance from a mem­ber of the Sack­lers in an opi­oid case, for­mer board mem­ber David Sack­ler told the bank­rupt­cy court Tues­day the fam­i­ly would not sup­port any deal that doesn’t in­clude an ex­pan­sive im­mu­ni­ty pro­vi­sion pro­tect­ing in­di­vid­ual Sack­lers from li­a­bil­i­ty as­so­ci­at­ed with opi­oid law­suits, the New York Times re­port­ed. The im­mu­ni­ty pro­vi­sion has emerged as a con­tentious is­sue in the tri­al, with crit­ics as­sail­ing the pro­posed deal as not go­ing far enough to get jus­tice for those af­fect­ed by the opi­oid epi­dem­ic.

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