Centogene, which provides genetic testing and rare
disease diagnostic products, filed on Friday with the SEC to raise up
to $69 million in an initial public offering.
The Rostock, Germany-based company was founded in 2006 and booked $50
million in sales for the 12 months ended June 30, 2019. It plans to
list on the Nasdaq under the symbol CNTG. SVB Leerink, Evercore ISI, Baird and BTIG are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.Saturday, October 12, 2019
Clinical stage biotech Galera Therapeutics files for a $86 million IPO
Galera Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech
developing products to reduce toxicity in radiotherapy patients, filed
on Friday with the SEC to raise up to $86 million in an initial public
offering.
The Malvern, PA-based company was founded in 2012 and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol GRTX. BofA Merrill Lynch, Citi, Credit Suisse and BTIG are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed.Friday, October 11, 2019
Brain protein that promotes maintenance of chronic pain ID’d
A protein called RGS4 (Regulator of G protein signaling 4) plays a
prominent role in the maintenance of long-term pain states and may serve
as a promising new target for the treatment of chronic pain conditions,
according to research conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at
Mount Sinai and published in print October 16, in The Journal of Neuroscience.
The discovery may help doctors stop acute pain from progressing into chronic pain, a condition in which patients experience not just pain, but a number of debilitating symptoms ranging from sensory deficits to depression and loss of motivation. The transition from acute to chronic (pathological) pain is accompanied by numerous adaptations in immune, glial, and neuronal cells, many of which are still not well understood. As a result, currently available medications for neuropathic or chronic inflammatory pain show limited efficacy and major side effects. Commonly administered opioids provide temporary alleviation of some pain symptoms, but carry serious risks like addiction in the context of long-term treatment for chronic pain. Therefore, there is an imminent need for novel approaches towards the treatment of chronic pain and for the development of medications that disrupt pain states instead of simply alleviating symptoms.
“Our research reveals that RGS4 actions contribute to the transition from acute and sub-acute pain to pathological pain states and to the maintenance of pain,” says Venetia Zachariou, PhD, Professor in the Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, the Department of Pharmacological Sciences and The Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Because chronic pain states affect numerous neurochemical processes and single-target drugs are unlikely to work, it’s exciting to have discovered a multifunctional protein that can be targeted to disrupt the maintenance of pain.”
RGS4 is a multifunctional protein widely expressed in brain circuits that processes pathological pain, mood, and motivation. Through this study, Mount Sinai researchers observed that RGS4 plays an important role in maintaining pain states, regardless of whether the cause of pain was nerve injury or inflammation. Using genetic mouse models to ablate the gene expressing RGS4, the team demonstrated that prevention of RGS4 action disrupts the maintenance of chronic pain states in male and female mice.
Specifically, the research team used genetically modified mice to understand the role of RGS4 in the induction, intensity, and maintenance of chronic pain symptoms. They found that while genetic inactivation of RGS4 does not affect acute pain or the induction of chronic pain, it promotes recovery from sensory hypersensitivity symptoms in preclinical models of peripheral nerve injury, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, and peripheral inflammation. Mice lacking RGS4 developed all expected symptoms of nerve injury, but they recovered within 3 weeks. Prevention of RGS4 action was also associated with an increase in motivation-related behaviors.
The group also used genetic tools to reduce the expression of RGS4 in the ventral-posterior lateral nucleus of the thalamus, a pain processing center that receives input from the spinal cord and relays this information to several cortical areas. Ultimately, inhibition of RGS4 actions in brain region resulted in recovery from mechanical and cold allodynia. Additionally, the research team used next-generation sequencing to gain insight on the genes and intracellular pathways affected by RGS4. The lab is further investigating the actions of RGS4 in the spinal cord and in mood-regulating areas of the brain to better understand the mechanism by which this protein affects sensory and affective pain symptoms.
Dr. Zachariou’s laboratory is conducting further investigation into the actions of RGS4 in the spinal cord and mood-regulating areas of the brain to better understand the mechanism by which this protein affects sensory and affective pain symptoms. They are also testing the therapeutic potential of RGS4 inhibitors.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/tmsh-rib101019.php
The discovery may help doctors stop acute pain from progressing into chronic pain, a condition in which patients experience not just pain, but a number of debilitating symptoms ranging from sensory deficits to depression and loss of motivation. The transition from acute to chronic (pathological) pain is accompanied by numerous adaptations in immune, glial, and neuronal cells, many of which are still not well understood. As a result, currently available medications for neuropathic or chronic inflammatory pain show limited efficacy and major side effects. Commonly administered opioids provide temporary alleviation of some pain symptoms, but carry serious risks like addiction in the context of long-term treatment for chronic pain. Therefore, there is an imminent need for novel approaches towards the treatment of chronic pain and for the development of medications that disrupt pain states instead of simply alleviating symptoms.
“Our research reveals that RGS4 actions contribute to the transition from acute and sub-acute pain to pathological pain states and to the maintenance of pain,” says Venetia Zachariou, PhD, Professor in the Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, the Department of Pharmacological Sciences and The Friedman Brain Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Because chronic pain states affect numerous neurochemical processes and single-target drugs are unlikely to work, it’s exciting to have discovered a multifunctional protein that can be targeted to disrupt the maintenance of pain.”
RGS4 is a multifunctional protein widely expressed in brain circuits that processes pathological pain, mood, and motivation. Through this study, Mount Sinai researchers observed that RGS4 plays an important role in maintaining pain states, regardless of whether the cause of pain was nerve injury or inflammation. Using genetic mouse models to ablate the gene expressing RGS4, the team demonstrated that prevention of RGS4 action disrupts the maintenance of chronic pain states in male and female mice.
Specifically, the research team used genetically modified mice to understand the role of RGS4 in the induction, intensity, and maintenance of chronic pain symptoms. They found that while genetic inactivation of RGS4 does not affect acute pain or the induction of chronic pain, it promotes recovery from sensory hypersensitivity symptoms in preclinical models of peripheral nerve injury, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, and peripheral inflammation. Mice lacking RGS4 developed all expected symptoms of nerve injury, but they recovered within 3 weeks. Prevention of RGS4 action was also associated with an increase in motivation-related behaviors.
The group also used genetic tools to reduce the expression of RGS4 in the ventral-posterior lateral nucleus of the thalamus, a pain processing center that receives input from the spinal cord and relays this information to several cortical areas. Ultimately, inhibition of RGS4 actions in brain region resulted in recovery from mechanical and cold allodynia. Additionally, the research team used next-generation sequencing to gain insight on the genes and intracellular pathways affected by RGS4. The lab is further investigating the actions of RGS4 in the spinal cord and in mood-regulating areas of the brain to better understand the mechanism by which this protein affects sensory and affective pain symptoms.
Dr. Zachariou’s laboratory is conducting further investigation into the actions of RGS4 in the spinal cord and mood-regulating areas of the brain to better understand the mechanism by which this protein affects sensory and affective pain symptoms. They are also testing the therapeutic potential of RGS4 inhibitors.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/tmsh-rib101019.php
Blood test raises hopes of tackling ‘silent killer’ abdominal aortic aneurysms
It is the ‘silent killer’ that claimed the life of Albert Einstein
and affects 1% of men over the age of 65, but researchers at the
University of Dundee believe they may be able to reduce the number of
fatalities caused by abdominal aortic aneurysms.
Aneurysms are the swelling and weakening of the arterial wall. Aortic aneurysms occur in the aorta, which delivers blood from the heart to organs. Aneurysms are often called a silent killer, because patients can display no symptoms until the aneurysm bursts. Around 80% of all patients with a ruptured aneurysm die from the condition.
A team from the University’s School of Medicine have devised a test that detects the presence of desmosine, an amino acid that diseased aortas release into the blood and urine. They believe this can improve the diagnosis and monitoring of aortic aneurysms while possibly aiding effort to develop new therapies to slow down their progression.
Men aged 65 and over are most at risk and may be invited for ultrasound screening. If an aortic aneurysm is detected, they will be asked to attend regular follow up checks but, as aneurysms do not expand at a linear rate, this means rapid growth between screenings may be missed.
Furthermore, the size of an aneurysm does not always correlate to how close it is to rupturing. However, the Dundee researchers believe that measuring the level of desmosine is a more effective way of identifying which patients are in most urgent need of treatment.
Dr Anna Maria Choy, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the University, said, “At the moment, patients are offered surgery when the aneurysm reaches a size where it is felt to be in danger of rupturing. The problem is that aortic aneurysms can progress quite unpredictably and rapidly between tests. Sometimes they stay the same for a long time then have sudden expansion and they can also rupture when not of a particularly significant size.
“All this means we need to find a better way to detect and monitor aneurysms as it is a terrible amount of uncertainty for patients and their families to live with. We established that desmosine was released into the blood when this disease was present so we looked at whether testing for this might add to the screening.
“Looking at a retrospective collection of samples from aneurysm patients, we found that not only was this effective in detecting aneurysms, it improved predicting complications and outcomes. This could potentially help to save lives by picking up danger signs missed by the current screening programme and identifying which patients should be offered surgery.”
Ruptured aortic aneurysms cause 5,000 deaths in the UK each year, and are responsible for 1 in 75 deaths of men over 65. The incidence is growing as the population ages while smokers, diabetics and people with hypertension are among other at-risk groups.
Desmosine derives from elastin protein. As suggested by its name, elastin provides blood vessels with their unique elastic character to expand and stretch. When someone develops an aneurysm, this protein gets broken down and is released into blood and urine.
The Dundee team and their co-investigators from Edinburgh, Leicester and Singapore checked the desmosine levels of patients with aneurysms ranging from the very mild to extremely severe. They found it was not just an effective indicator of the size of the aneurysm but also the likelihood of the patient developing complications.
Dr Jeffrey Huang, a principal investigator who developed the desmosine assay, said, “Where available, screening programmes have helped reduce the number of fatalities but it is quite resource-intensive. It is potentially more cost-effective and patient-friendly to go to your GP for a simple blood test rather than going to hospital for an ultrasound.
“More importantly, our test has shown to be more effective in predicting outcomes than size alone so there is the potential to save lives.”
At the moment there is no medical intervention known to slow the progression of aneurysms but Dr Choy and Dr Huang believe the test they have developed can help to guide the development of therapies through clinical trials by giving faster and clearer readings of the levels of desmosine and therefore aortic destruction.
“Next we want to test this research in women who experience a higher mortality rate event though they are less likely to be diagnosed with an aneurysm,” continued Dr Choy. “It may also prove significant for people with genetic diseases that lead to diseased aortic walls. The bottom line is that in any disease of the aorta we think this amino acid may have a role to play in detection, prediction and follow up.”
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/uod-btr101119.php
Aneurysms are the swelling and weakening of the arterial wall. Aortic aneurysms occur in the aorta, which delivers blood from the heart to organs. Aneurysms are often called a silent killer, because patients can display no symptoms until the aneurysm bursts. Around 80% of all patients with a ruptured aneurysm die from the condition.
A team from the University’s School of Medicine have devised a test that detects the presence of desmosine, an amino acid that diseased aortas release into the blood and urine. They believe this can improve the diagnosis and monitoring of aortic aneurysms while possibly aiding effort to develop new therapies to slow down their progression.
Men aged 65 and over are most at risk and may be invited for ultrasound screening. If an aortic aneurysm is detected, they will be asked to attend regular follow up checks but, as aneurysms do not expand at a linear rate, this means rapid growth between screenings may be missed.
Furthermore, the size of an aneurysm does not always correlate to how close it is to rupturing. However, the Dundee researchers believe that measuring the level of desmosine is a more effective way of identifying which patients are in most urgent need of treatment.
Dr Anna Maria Choy, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the University, said, “At the moment, patients are offered surgery when the aneurysm reaches a size where it is felt to be in danger of rupturing. The problem is that aortic aneurysms can progress quite unpredictably and rapidly between tests. Sometimes they stay the same for a long time then have sudden expansion and they can also rupture when not of a particularly significant size.
“All this means we need to find a better way to detect and monitor aneurysms as it is a terrible amount of uncertainty for patients and their families to live with. We established that desmosine was released into the blood when this disease was present so we looked at whether testing for this might add to the screening.
“Looking at a retrospective collection of samples from aneurysm patients, we found that not only was this effective in detecting aneurysms, it improved predicting complications and outcomes. This could potentially help to save lives by picking up danger signs missed by the current screening programme and identifying which patients should be offered surgery.”
Ruptured aortic aneurysms cause 5,000 deaths in the UK each year, and are responsible for 1 in 75 deaths of men over 65. The incidence is growing as the population ages while smokers, diabetics and people with hypertension are among other at-risk groups.
Desmosine derives from elastin protein. As suggested by its name, elastin provides blood vessels with their unique elastic character to expand and stretch. When someone develops an aneurysm, this protein gets broken down and is released into blood and urine.
The Dundee team and their co-investigators from Edinburgh, Leicester and Singapore checked the desmosine levels of patients with aneurysms ranging from the very mild to extremely severe. They found it was not just an effective indicator of the size of the aneurysm but also the likelihood of the patient developing complications.
Dr Jeffrey Huang, a principal investigator who developed the desmosine assay, said, “Where available, screening programmes have helped reduce the number of fatalities but it is quite resource-intensive. It is potentially more cost-effective and patient-friendly to go to your GP for a simple blood test rather than going to hospital for an ultrasound.
“More importantly, our test has shown to be more effective in predicting outcomes than size alone so there is the potential to save lives.”
At the moment there is no medical intervention known to slow the progression of aneurysms but Dr Choy and Dr Huang believe the test they have developed can help to guide the development of therapies through clinical trials by giving faster and clearer readings of the levels of desmosine and therefore aortic destruction.
“Next we want to test this research in women who experience a higher mortality rate event though they are less likely to be diagnosed with an aneurysm,” continued Dr Choy. “It may also prove significant for people with genetic diseases that lead to diseased aortic walls. The bottom line is that in any disease of the aorta we think this amino acid may have a role to play in detection, prediction and follow up.”
###
The research was funded by the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office and Tenovus Trust Scotland and was published by the Journal of the American Heart Association.https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/uod-btr101119.php
Tariffs take toll on Philips margin goal in blow to shares
Philips warned it will miss its 2019 profit margin target on Thursday due to trade tariffs and poor results at its Connected Care arm, wiping around 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion)off the Dutch healthcare technology group’s market value.
The trade war between the United States and China has forced Philips
to shift production and to seek other suppliers for components in recent
months to avoid punitive tariffs.
But this has proved harder to achieve than earlier expected, while tariffs rose faster than previously announced, Chief Executive Frans van Houten told reporters.
“Tariffs have gone up, definitions have become clearer”, Van Houten said, adding: “The impact has gone up, while mitigating actions have been delayed.”
Philips shares were down 8% at 0820 GMT after the warning.
Earlier this year, Philips said the trade war between Washington and Beijing was forcing it to move hundreds of millions of euros worth of production from the U.S. to China, and vice versa, to avoid tariffs.
These mainly hurt Philips’ connected care business, which specialises in remote patient monitoring, for instance through software platforms and devices that allow doctors to share patient information.
Sales of connected care were 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) last year, on total group revenues of 18.1 billion euros.
The connected care arm is more exposed to trade tariffs than Philips’ two larger businesses, which make hospital equipment such as medical scanners and personal health products such as toothbrushes, as it offers many more and smaller products.
“This means we need a lot of small actions, which all add up”, Van Houten said.
“In diagnosis & treatment we have fewer products, while in personal health the volumes are higher, so a single action there has greater effect on the whole.”
MARGIN GOAL MISS
Margins at the struggling Connected Care division not only dropped in the third quarter as tariffs hit, but also because factories lowered production to get rid of high inventories.
Philips has repeatedly said rising life expectancy and associated chronic diseases would lead to growing demand for devices that allow patients to stay at home, while their data is monitored.
But Van Houten last year also said demand for such products would remain modest in 2019.
Philips now expects its adjusted EBITA margin to only improve by 10 to 20 basis points this year, well off its previous 100 basis point goal.
“Based on this profit warning we expect 2019 adjusted EBITA to come down by low-to-mid-single digit”, ING analyst Marc Hesselink said.
Philips did stick to its target of improving comparable sales by 4% to 6% this year, as Van Houten said he continued to see good growth in all his businesses.
Preliminary third quarter results, also released on Thursday, showed sales are expected to have increased 6% in the quarter to 4.7 billion euros, while adjusted earnings before tax, interest and amortisation (EBITA) increased 3% to 583 million euros.
A 78 million euros impairment on connected care pushed net profit down around 30% to 210 million euros.
But this has proved harder to achieve than earlier expected, while tariffs rose faster than previously announced, Chief Executive Frans van Houten told reporters.
“Tariffs have gone up, definitions have become clearer”, Van Houten said, adding: “The impact has gone up, while mitigating actions have been delayed.”
Philips shares were down 8% at 0820 GMT after the warning.
Earlier this year, Philips said the trade war between Washington and Beijing was forcing it to move hundreds of millions of euros worth of production from the U.S. to China, and vice versa, to avoid tariffs.
These mainly hurt Philips’ connected care business, which specialises in remote patient monitoring, for instance through software platforms and devices that allow doctors to share patient information.
Sales of connected care were 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) last year, on total group revenues of 18.1 billion euros.
The connected care arm is more exposed to trade tariffs than Philips’ two larger businesses, which make hospital equipment such as medical scanners and personal health products such as toothbrushes, as it offers many more and smaller products.
“This means we need a lot of small actions, which all add up”, Van Houten said.
“In diagnosis & treatment we have fewer products, while in personal health the volumes are higher, so a single action there has greater effect on the whole.”
MARGIN GOAL MISS
Margins at the struggling Connected Care division not only dropped in the third quarter as tariffs hit, but also because factories lowered production to get rid of high inventories.
Philips has repeatedly said rising life expectancy and associated chronic diseases would lead to growing demand for devices that allow patients to stay at home, while their data is monitored.
But Van Houten last year also said demand for such products would remain modest in 2019.
Philips now expects its adjusted EBITA margin to only improve by 10 to 20 basis points this year, well off its previous 100 basis point goal.
“Based on this profit warning we expect 2019 adjusted EBITA to come down by low-to-mid-single digit”, ING analyst Marc Hesselink said.
Philips did stick to its target of improving comparable sales by 4% to 6% this year, as Van Houten said he continued to see good growth in all his businesses.
Preliminary third quarter results, also released on Thursday, showed sales are expected to have increased 6% in the quarter to 4.7 billion euros, while adjusted earnings before tax, interest and amortisation (EBITA) increased 3% to 583 million euros.
A 78 million euros impairment on connected care pushed net profit down around 30% to 210 million euros.
https://www.marketscreener.com/ROYAL-PHILIPS-6289/news/Royal-Philips-Tariffs-take-toll-on-Philips-margin-goal-in-blow-to-shares-29359473/
SoftBank-backed Vir Biotechnology’s shares tumble in market debut
Shares of SoftBank-backed Vir Biotechnology Inc fell as much as 28% in one of the worst market debuts in recent months, adding to the gloom in the IPO market after WeWork’s failed attempt to list its stock.
Vir’s disastrous IPO deals another blow to Japan’s SoftBank, which is
still smarting from the botched initial public offering of WeWork last
month following increased investor skepticism regarding the
office-sharing startup’s path to profitability.
SoftBank’s $100-billion (78.9 billion pounds) Vision Fund owns 19.8% of Vir after the offering, a slight decrease from its pre-IPO stake of 21.2%. (https://bit.ly/318hWfg)
Investors and experts tracking recent IPOs believe companies thinking of going public in the next 12-18 months would be extremely wary of the recent backlash against loss-making firms.
Vir posted revenue of $10.7 million for 2018, a nearly four-fold jump from a year earlier, but its losses also ballooned by 66% to roughly $116 million in the same period.
Shares of the San Francisco-based infectious disease researcher opened at $16.15 after its initial public offering was priced at the low end of its $20 to $22 per share price range. It raised $142.9 million from the offering.
At the day’s low of $14.17, the company was valued at slightly over $1.5 billion.
Vir researches new therapies for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis and HIV, and counts some of the most high-profile investors in the industry among its backers.
Co-founded by Arch Venture Partners’ Robert Nelsen, both SoftBank’s Vision Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are among its biggest backers. Biogen Inc’s former Chief Executive Officer George Scangos is its CEO.
JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Cowen and Barclays are among the lead underwriters for Vir’s IPO.
SoftBank’s $100-billion (78.9 billion pounds) Vision Fund owns 19.8% of Vir after the offering, a slight decrease from its pre-IPO stake of 21.2%. (https://bit.ly/318hWfg)
Investors and experts tracking recent IPOs believe companies thinking of going public in the next 12-18 months would be extremely wary of the recent backlash against loss-making firms.
Vir posted revenue of $10.7 million for 2018, a nearly four-fold jump from a year earlier, but its losses also ballooned by 66% to roughly $116 million in the same period.
Shares of the San Francisco-based infectious disease researcher opened at $16.15 after its initial public offering was priced at the low end of its $20 to $22 per share price range. It raised $142.9 million from the offering.
At the day’s low of $14.17, the company was valued at slightly over $1.5 billion.
Vir researches new therapies for infectious diseases such as hepatitis, tuberculosis and HIV, and counts some of the most high-profile investors in the industry among its backers.
Co-founded by Arch Venture Partners’ Robert Nelsen, both SoftBank’s Vision Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are among its biggest backers. Biogen Inc’s former Chief Executive Officer George Scangos is its CEO.
JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Cowen and Barclays are among the lead underwriters for Vir’s IPO.
https://www.marketscreener.com/BIOGEN-INC-4853/news/Biogen-SoftBank-backed-Vir-Biotechnology-s-shares-tumble-in-market-debut-29368438/
OxyContin maker Purdue gets brief shield from litigation
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP won a court order on Friday briefly pausing the sprawling opioid litigation against the company so it can try to make headway on its proposed legal settlement that it says is worth $10 billion (7.9 billion pounds).
The company and its controlling Sackler family have been accused in
more than 2,600 lawsuits, mostly brought by states and local
governments, of improper marketing of its opioid products and fuelling a
nationwide crisis.
The plaintiffs in the bulk of those cases support the proposed settlement, but at least 24 states oppose it.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain on Friday approved a stay of all litigation until Nov. 6.
The company hopes over the coming weeks it can to convince the hold-out states to agree to extend the stay on litigation to six months, as the governments backing the settlement have agreed to.
Drain also hoped the brief stay would give the parties time to hammer out a protocol for sharing documents and financial information about Purdue and the Sackler family in a way that would win the trust of the hold-out states.
Just prior to Friday’s six-hour hearing, Purdue attorney Marshall Huebner said the company, the official committee of unsecured creditors and the Sacklers worked out an information sharing agreement.
The agreement would allow the committee to assess the settlement, and the Sacklers also agreed to provide information about their wealth and would agree to refrain from taking any material action with their property.
Privately-held Purdue filed for bankruptcy last month to help it implement the proposed deal, which will transfer Purdue’s ownership to a public trust owned by the plaintiffs. In addition, the family has also pledged to contribute at least $3 billion to the settlement.
Drain said the public deserves an accounting of the company’s role in the crisis, which has led to some 400,000 deaths from 1999 to 2017, according to U.S. statistics.
However, he said he feared a “trial becomes an autopsy” that destroys the value of Purdue, adding that most trials leave many unresolved questions.
“There are trials where people stand up and say ‘I did it.’ But that mostly happens on Perry Mason,” he said, referring to the popular TV show from the 1950s and ’60s featuring a lawyer who won virtually every case.
Drain also urged the parties to determine the best way to divvy up the settlement proceeds, echoing comments he had made on Thursday.
The plaintiffs in the bulk of those cases support the proposed settlement, but at least 24 states oppose it.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain on Friday approved a stay of all litigation until Nov. 6.
The company hopes over the coming weeks it can to convince the hold-out states to agree to extend the stay on litigation to six months, as the governments backing the settlement have agreed to.
Drain also hoped the brief stay would give the parties time to hammer out a protocol for sharing documents and financial information about Purdue and the Sackler family in a way that would win the trust of the hold-out states.
Just prior to Friday’s six-hour hearing, Purdue attorney Marshall Huebner said the company, the official committee of unsecured creditors and the Sacklers worked out an information sharing agreement.
The agreement would allow the committee to assess the settlement, and the Sacklers also agreed to provide information about their wealth and would agree to refrain from taking any material action with their property.
Privately-held Purdue filed for bankruptcy last month to help it implement the proposed deal, which will transfer Purdue’s ownership to a public trust owned by the plaintiffs. In addition, the family has also pledged to contribute at least $3 billion to the settlement.
Drain said the public deserves an accounting of the company’s role in the crisis, which has led to some 400,000 deaths from 1999 to 2017, according to U.S. statistics.
However, he said he feared a “trial becomes an autopsy” that destroys the value of Purdue, adding that most trials leave many unresolved questions.
“There are trials where people stand up and say ‘I did it.’ But that mostly happens on Perry Mason,” he said, referring to the popular TV show from the 1950s and ’60s featuring a lawyer who won virtually every case.
Drain also urged the parties to determine the best way to divvy up the settlement proceeds, echoing comments he had made on Thursday.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/OxyContin-maker-Purdue-gets-brief-shield-from-litigation–29366729/
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