Victims garner support to help guide Purdue Pharma bankruptcy

Victims of opioid addiction weren't in the room when OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma persuaded half the state attorneys general to settle claims over the company's role in the nationwide overdose epidemic.

Now that Purdue is in federal bankruptcy court, four people whose lives were touched by addiction to have important seats at the table — and could force fundamental changes to the tentative deal. They are part of a bankruptcy committee that will play a major role in deciding how much Purdue will pay and potentially how that money is to be spent.

The committee can investigate Purdue's operations and possibly even go after more money from the members of the Sackler family who own the company. They will play a central role in evaluating the tentative settlement reached by the attorneys general representing roughly half the states.

The four are a mother and a grandfather of children born dependent on opioids, a man in recovery from addiction and a mother who lost a son to overdose. Together, they could be an emotionally persuasive minority on the nine-member Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors appointed by the U.S. trustee overseeing the bankruptcy.

"There's not a shy person in the bunch," said addiction treatment advocate and lobbyist Carol McDaid, who attended the hearing when the committee candidates were interviewed and chosen. The four victims know how to make their voices heard, she said.

It's unusual for a creditors committee to include private citizens. The other members are more typical: a medical centre, a health insurer, a prescription benefit management company, the manufacturer of an addiction treatment drug and a pension insurer.

The committee can hire lawyers and financial experts paid for by the debtor — in this case, Purdue, said Robert Dammon, dean of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. It can investigate issues such as the company's value and even whether the Sackler family has improperly taken money out of it — something some state attorneys general are investigating.

Opioids, including prescription drugs and illegal ones such as heroin and illicitly made fentanyl, have been linked to more than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. since 2000. Thousands of infants have been born to mothers who were taking opioids while pregnant, and two committee members represent those children.

Kara Trainor is the mother of a child born dependent on opioids. Walter Lee Salmons, a grandfather, is helping raise two affected children. Ryan Hampton is an activist in recovery from opioid addiction. Cheryl Juaire lost her 23-year-old son to a heroin overdose after he became addicted to prescription painkillers.