Pharma company Endo International filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday at the Court for the Southern District of New York, according to multiple reports. The move comes amid thousands of lawsuits the company faces due to its role in escalating the opioid epidemic in the U.S.
Endo also reached a deal with a portion of its creditors that will see the company over $8 billion in debt. As part of the agreement, the control of all of Endo’s assets will transfer to the creditors. They will also take on some of the company’s liabilities.
The company’s next move will be to attempt to settle opioid epidemic-related lawsuits. Creditors are expected to set up a fund of around $550 million for this purpose. Endo also has an agreement in place with U.S. state attorneys general to pay over $450 million over the course of the next decade for relying on “deceptive marketing” to sell its products. The agreement also includes a permanent marketing ban on opioids.
“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,” Blaise Coleman, CEO of Endo, said in a statement.