Purdue Pharma has announced it has ceased operations and concluded its multi-year bankruptcy proceedings, re-emerging as a nonprofit organisation, Knoa Pharma. The new entity is dedicated to treating opioid addiction and will be overseen by a new board comprising individuals with government and health industry experience. Purdue Pharma was a pharmaceutical company known for developing and marketing the painkiller OxyContin, and it had faced thousands of lawsuits over its role in fuelling the opioid epidemic in the U.S.
The transition to Knoa Pharma was a cornerstone of a substantial $7.4 billion bankruptcy settlement, designed to channel all of the company’s resources towards mitigating the harms of the opioid crisis. Purdue had previously pleaded guilty twice to federal charges concerning the marketing of OxyContin, including misleading regulators and paying kickbacks to doctors. The recent completion of the company’s criminal sentencing removed the final obstacle, allowing the bankruptcy plan to come into full effect.
Under its new mandate, Knoa Pharma is committed to providing care and saving lives by selling medicines for overdose reversal and addiction treatment at or below production cost. Trustees for Knoa Pharma include Rahul Gupta, former lead of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Paul Rothman, former CEO of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and David Saltzman, co-founder of the Atria Health and Research Institute. Most of the settlement funds will be directed to states and local governments that bore the costs of opioid addiction, with $865 million allocated for individual claimants, though a Reuters review of court filings indicated frustration among victims regarding hurdles to payment.
