The Sacklers didn’t want to be looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives. And Judge Drain, with his singular fixation on conserving value in the bankruptcy, appeared to be sympathetic to this consideration. At an early hearing, in February 2020, he suggested that the only way to achieve “true peace” was to have what he called a “third-party release,” a ruling that would grant not just Purdue but also the Sackler family freedom from any future opioid-related lawsuits.
