CHARLESTON, W. Va.–West Virginia’s share of the bankruptcy settlement for pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma will probably be substantially less than West Virginia attorneys who took the company to court were seeking.
It’s becoming more and more clear the settlement funds will be based on a population metric rather than other factors in places hardest hit by the addiction problems created by Oxycontin–one of the company’s biggest products.
Huntington lawyer Mike Woelfel, who also serves as a member of the state Senate, represents Cabell, Wayne, and Fayette counties, three of 3,000 plaintiffs across the country in the lawsuit and voted “no” on using population or the “Denver Formula” to determine settlement amounts.
“Basically the Appalachian counties which have been hit very hard by this and the tribes of Native Americans who have been hard hit by this, there’s got to be some formula and my guess is the population formula will likely carry the day,” Woelfel said.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey also voted “no” for the state. He’ll argue for his position at an Aug. 7 confirmation hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in southern New York.