Province has worked with diverse healthcare and pharmaceutical clientele, including healthcare services companies, medical device firms, life sciences enterprises, biopharmaceutical companies and specialty & generic pharmaceutical manufacturers. Furthermore, our specialized teams have vast experience advising opioid related creditors, and have worked on each of the four opioid manufacturer bankruptcies in the United States – Insys Therapeutics, Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt plc and Endo International – all of which are landmark cases influencing the public health policy surrounding the national opioid crisis.
Corporate Advisory
- Restructuring / Reorganization
- Settlement Negotiations
- Intercreditor Negotiations (Including Tort Claims)
Financial Advisory
- Liquidity Analyses
- Business Plan and Valuation Analyses
- Sales Process
Litigation Services
- Financial Investigation
- Expert Witness
- Damage Analyses
- Solvency
- Forensic Accounting
- Litigation Support
Purdue Pharma is a privately held pharmaceutical company that was previously controlled by the Sackler family. The company filed for bankruptcy in September 2019, facing nearly 3,000 lawsuits related to its opioid products including OxyContin and its role in creating and perpetuating the national opioid crisis. Province is currently advising the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of Purdue Pharma – comprised of personal injury victims, children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, a health insurer, a hospital system, trade creditors and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation – representing the interests of all unsecured creditors including hundreds of thousands of opioid creditors who have asserted trillions of dollars in claims against the debtors. Province’s role in advising the committee has involved assessing the magnitude of opioid claims held by at least 11 separate groups of opioid creditors, preparing forensic analyses across a complex intercompany structure comprised of debtor entities and network of hundreds of ex-US and US-based independent associated companies, tracing billions in fraudulent transfers to the Sacklers and the trusts and other entities that they control, and advising the committee in multiple rounds of mediation related to the allocation of value amongst the groups of opioid creditors and related to a potential settlement of claims against the Sackler family for billions of dollars.
Role
Financial Advisor to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
Date
October 2019 – present
Sector
Pharmaceuticals
Mallinckrodt is a global specialty biopharma company that produces and sells both generic and branded pharmaceutical products, including opioids. The company filed for chapter 11 in October 2020 in the face of over 3,000 lawsuits related to its sale and marketing of opioids, as well as numerous contingent and other claims. Mallinckrodt intended to use the bankruptcy process to implement a restructuring support agreement (RSA), which provided for $1.3 billion in debt reduction as well as settlements of its opioid and Acthar-related claims. Province, as financial advisor to the Official Committee of Opioid Claimants (OCC) assisted the OCC in improving the RSA-proposed settlement for opioid claimants to ultimately provide up to $1.725 billion in upfront and deferred cash payments over time, as well as preserving valuable causes of action for the Opioid Master Disbursement Trust II (MDT II), which serves as the “hub” trust in a “hub & spoke” multi-trust scheme allowing for the distribution of billions of dollars to the benefit of hundreds of thousands of opioid creditors.
When the Plan of Reorganization became effective in June 2022, one of Province’s Principals (who led advisory work for the official committees in Insys Therapeutics, Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt and now Endo International) – was hired to serve as one of three trustees of the MDT II.
Role
Financial Advisor to the Official Committee of Opioid Creditors and Trustee of the MDT II
Date
October 2020 – October 2022
June 2022 – present
Sector
Pharmaceuticals
Promise Healthcare Group LLC, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates short- and long-term acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities across eight states. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Boca Raton, Florida. As financial advisor to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, Province participated in a multi-part marketing process that was spread across nine pools of assets, and significant post-acquisition litigation related to three asset sales. While the asset sales generated proceeds well in excess of projected expectations, Province also advised the post-confirmation liquidation trustee on the causes of action and quantification of damages involving extensive discovery, diligence and analysis related to fraudulent transfers, corporate waste and other improper transfers of value.
Role
Financial Advisor to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors and Liquidating Trustee
Date
November 2018 – November 2020
October 2020 – present
Sector
Healthcare
Built in 1978 by a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline, a Bristol, Tennessee facility that acted as one of the largest comprehensive domestic manufacturers of antibiotics in the United States was purchased by Neopharma in 2018. Mismanagement of the facility, along with corporate malfeasance by Neopharma’s foreign parent company, resulted in liquidity issues that led to bankruptcy. Province was mandated to act as sales process advisor, and its experience with pharma manufacturers and M&A contributed to the successful sale of the company over a 2.5 month period. In doing so, the Province team participated in an innovative awareness campaign premised on the scarcity of and need to support US-based antibiotics manufacturing. Together, with targeted outreach to the right investors, this resulted in an influx of potential buyers willing to participate in a short process. Ultimately, the sale process resulted in an almost complete recovery for unsecured creditors.
Role
Financial Advisor to the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors
Date
January – November 2021
Sector
Pharmaceuticals