Purdue Pharma is working with restructuring advisers to prepare a possible bankruptcy filing as it seeks to contain liability from hundreds of lawsuits alleging it fueled the nation’s opioid epidemic, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those advisers now include AlixPartners, a New York-based consulting firm known for its restructuring work, according to a person familiar with the hiring. The company last year hired law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell as restructuring counsel and added longtime restructuring specialist Steve Miller to chair its board.

Purdue, the maker of prescription painkiller OxyContin, has been targeted in lawsuits by about 1,600 cities, counties and states seeking to recoup costs incurred by widespread opioid abuse. The municipalities claim Purdue and other drugmakers’ aggressive marketing of prescription drugs helped hook the nation on opioids, leading to a proliferation of overdoses from both legal and illegal opioids.

Purdue has denied the allegations in the lawsuits and said it is committed to being part of the solution to the opioid epidemic. The privately held company said Monday it doesn’t comment on financial or legal strategy but that, “We have ample liquidity and remain committed to meeting our obligations to the patients who benefit from our medicines, our suppliers and other business partners.”

The Stamford, Conn.-based company has no significant debt, the people familiar with the matter said, but is considering using a Chapter 11 filing to resolve the mounting litigation.

A bankruptcy filing would immediately halt the lawsuits and provide an avenue to settle the claims on a global basis overseen by the bankruptcy court. The process could provide a quicker and more orderly resolution of the lawsuits than through the state and federal courts where they were filed. But the exact nature of how the cases would be dispensed with in bankruptcy is unclear.

The timing of a potential bankruptcy is in flux, the people said, and may not happen at all. Reuters earlier reported Purdue’s potential bankruptcy plans.

Companies have for decades turned to U.S. bankruptcy courts as a tool to manage litigation liabilities. USA Gymnastics sought bankruptcy protection in December in the face of a scandal over sexual abuse by the national team’s former doctor. California’s largest utility, PG&E Corp. , filed for Chapter 11 in January to help contend with more than $30 billion in potential liability costs related to its role in sparking deadly wildfires.

Purdue and other companies are engaged in settlement talks under the direction of a U.S. District Judge in Ohio who is overseeing hundreds of opioid lawsuits filed in federal court, a process known as multidistrict litigation. The judge, Dan Polster, has pushed the parties to settle while scheduling a few so-called bellwether trials in October to help test the claims.

OxyContin was approved by U.S. regulators in 1995. The company faced a federal investigation in 2007 that led it and three of its executives to plead guilty to criminal charges of misleading the public about the addiction risk related to the drug. Purdue and the executives paid $634.5 million in government penalties and costs to settle civil litigation.

Purdue continues to make OxyContin and other drugs but has been pared down to around 550 employees. The company last year said it was laying off the remainder of its sales force and would no longer actively promote OxyContin to U.S. doctors.

The Purdue Pharma offices in Stamford, Conn. Purdue, the maker of prescription painkiller OxyContin, has been targeted by lawsuits.

the associated press file