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….