Endo files for bankruptcy as U.S. opioid litigation drags

(Reuters) -Endo International Plc filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after reaching a $6 billion deal with some of its creditors, as the U.S. drugmaker seeks to settle thousands of lawsuits over its alleged role in the country’s opioid epidemic.

The pharmaceutical company is the latest to file for Chapter 11 to address opioid claims. Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, filed in September 2019, while Mallinckrodt Plc, a generic opioid manufacturer, recently emerged from bankruptcy.

“By definitively addressing the more than $8 billion of debt that has burdened our balance sheet and establishing a pathway to closure with respect to the thousands of opioid-related and other lawsuits that the company has been defending at an unsustainable cost, we will be able to move forward…,” Endo’s Chief Executive Officer Blaise Coleman said in a statement.

The company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the Southern District of New York showed assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion.

The creditors, who will also assume some of the company’s liabilities, will substantially control all of its assets, Endo said.

The company also reached a deal with U.S. state attorneys general to provide $450 million over a period of 10 years, resolving allegations that the company boosted opioid sales using deceptive marketing, and bans the marketing of its opioids forever, according to the office of Massachusetts AG.

Creditors will also establish voluntary trusts with $550 million to be funded over 10 years to settle the opioid claims, the company said.

Endo has been discussing the possibility of filing for bankruptcy protection in several recent filings.

In June, the drugmaker missed a $38 million interest payment, amid discussions with a group of unsecured bondholders who had urged the company to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

(Reporting by Jahnavi Nidumolu and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Neha Arora, Rashmi Aich and Sriraj Kalluvila)