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Business Matters: Purdue Pharma Is Dissolved

Purdue Pharma Is Dissolved

02/09/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Business Matters, Purdue Pharma Is Dissolved

The bankruptcy court ruling caps a long legal battle for the company

The ruling ends a legal battle over the fate of Purdue Pharma which has been accused of fuelling the opioid epidemic.

A judge in America has approved a bankruptcy plan that effectively dissolves Purdue Pharma, maker of the highly addictive painkiller, OxyContin. The company owners, the wealthy Sackler family, will have to turn over billions of dollars to help combat the deadly opioid epidemic. But the agreement will absolve the Sacklers of any liability or future lawsuits, allowing them to remain one of the richest families in America. We hear from Patrick Radden Keefe who writes for the New Yorker and has published a book this year on the Sackler family.  Scientists at the UN's World Meteorological Organization say the number of weather-related disasters around the globe has increased five-fold over the past 50 years. We hear from the WMO's secretary-general, Professor Petteri Taalas. And we're joined throughout the programme by Sushma Ramachandran a columnist with the tribune who is based in Delhi and Dante Disparte from the Risk Co-operative who is based in Washington DC   (Image: prescription bottle via Getty Images).

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