CHARLESTON — Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is speaking out against an effort that would limit the amount of time West Virginians would have to go against potential flaws in the reorganization of Mallinckrodt LLC.
Mallinckrodt is a bankrupt opioid maker. The company's bankruptcy case is currently in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
“Allocation formulas largely based upon population ignore the devastation wrought by opioid abuse in West Virginia,” Morrisey said. “Our state deserves its fair share of any settlement, and that begins with ensuring our office has sufficient time to review Mallinckrodt’s plan.”
Morrisey argues that the current schedule wouldn't give people enough time to review the reorganization plan.
Morrisey recently also filed an objection in a proposed plan by Purdue Pharma that would have distributed settlement funds by state or local government population instead of intensity.
Mallinckrodt's current plan gives states only 14 days to review, understand and potentially object to the filing. Morrisey argues that the 14-day proposal isn't long enough and he proposed 28 days.
Morrisey wrote in the objection that granting the confirmation scheduling motion would be premature at this time, when, among other things, the debtors have still not completed their plan negotiations, have not resolved the central issue of allocation of the Opioid Trust assets, have not filed the Opioid Trust documents, and have not attempted to project even a range of recoveries on Opioid Claims.
In Morrisey's 2019 lawsuit against Mallinckrodt, he alleged that it contributed to the opioid crisis by individually engaging in strategic campaigns to deceive prescribers and misrepresent the risks and benefits of opioid painkillers.
Morrisey also alleged in the lawsuit that the company mischaracterized and failed to disclose the serious risk of addiction to painkillers and also overstated the benefits of chronic opioid therapy. The company also promoted higher dosage amounts without disclosing inherently greater risks, he claimed.
Morrisey's lawsuit also contended that officials at Mallinckrodt ignored abuse warnings and trained salespeople to push doctors to prescribe higher doses.