Oxy is a Hell of a Drug

With the stroke of a pen, a U.S. District Court Judge overturned the confirmed bankruptcy plan of Purdue Pharma, placing everything up in the air. What's at stake: $4.3 billion from Purdue's owners, the Sackler family, in exchange for the release of all claims against them from anyone, anywhere, for all time. Without those payments, no creditors other than the United States Government are likely to get anything at all - no opioid remediation and prevention programs; no payments to victims of the opioid epidemic; no states for having borne the costs of addiction; nothing. Plus, now bankruptcy courts don't have the authority they thought they had, so maybe we've broken the bankruptcy system. And what does this all have to do with Anna Nicole Smith??? We'll discuss this and more with one of the nation's foremost experts on bankruptcy.

Guest:

Professor Melissa B. Jacoby - Graham Kenan Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law

Episode Notes:

Professor Jacoby’s Website, Twitter, Bio, SSRN Author Page

Order of the U.S. District Court overturning the Purdue Pharma Plan of Reorganization

Books referenced by Professor Jacoby on the opioid epidemic and the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy:

Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe

Unsettled: How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis by Ryan Hampton

Show Notes:

Theme music by the mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder.

Show branding by Peg Fitzpatrick & PMG Group.

P.R. and social media by Emily Stern and A B+C Creative.