Most of the money from agreements with manufacturers and distributors of opioids like oxycodone will go to health care and drug treatment programs designed to defuse the opioid crisis.
File photo Keith Srakocic / AP
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File photo Keith Srakocic / AP
Most of the money from agreements with manufacturers and distributors of opioids like oxycodone will go to health care and drug treatment programs designed to defuse the opioid crisis.
File photo Keith Srakocic / AP
Four of America’s largest corporations have agreed to pay about $26 billion to settle a tsunami lawsuit related to claims their business helped fuel the deadly opioid crisis.
Johnson & Johnson, the medical and consumer goods giant that makes generic opioids, will contribute $5 billion to the settlement.
The company has announced that by 2020, it will completely exit the prescription opioid business in the US.
The three major drug wholesalers – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson – will pay a combined $21 billion.
“This settlement represents real accountability,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, who helped negotiate the settlement.
Most of the funds are earmarked for health care and drug therapy programs designed to defuse the opioid crisis, Stein noted.
“There will be people alive next year through the programs and services we were able to fund with the proceeds of this settlement,” he said.
None of the companies have admitted any wrongdoing over their role in the production and distribution of large quantities of pain relievers at a time when opioid addiction and overdose are on the rise. .
In a joint statement, the drug dealers said they had determined that enough governments had signed on to the agreement to come up with a “comprehensive agreement to resolve the majority of opioid litigation. “
According to a review of the companies, 46 states and about 90% of eligible local governments have signed on to the agreement.
In a separate statement, Johnson & Johnson said its contribution to the deal would “directly support state and local efforts to make meaningful progress in addressing the opioid crisis.”
Agreement to settle thousands of lawsuits
The settlement resolves thousands of civil lawsuits against companies beginning in 2014 by local and state governments and Native American tribes nationwide.
“The settlement will provide thousands of communities across the United States approximately $19.5 billion over 18 years,” the drug distributors said in their statement.
AmerisourceBergen will pay $6.1 billion, Cardinal Health $6 billion and McKesson $7.4 billion.
The broad outlines of the deal were first published in July 2021 but the companies have said they will not accept the deal unless enough governments agree to sign and drop their lawsuits.
Initial payments will begin in April and will continue for the next two decades.
A dangerous moment in the opioid crisis
This money will come at a time when the opioid epidemic is dangerously escalating.
Many Americans with opioid use disorders have switched from taking prescription painkillers to street fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is much more potent and deadly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses now kill more than 100,000 people in the US each year.
Joe Rice, with the firm of Motley Rice, is one of the lead lawyers suing the drug industry over its alleged role in the opioid crisis.
He supported the settlement and said the fund would help devastated communities “start rebuilding … and respond to this epidemic.”
Rice said the deal was structured in cooperation with local government officials to avoid a problem that arose with $246 billion in tobacco payments in the 1990s.
Much of that money was siphoned off to projects unrelated to the public health impact of tobacco addiction.
Rice said he believes it won’t happen this time. “Going into the drug litigation, that was recognized as a big problem that we had to fix,” he said.
According to Stein, the companies have also agreed to fund a new surveillance system to prevent communities from being once again inundated with high-risk drugs.
“If too many pills are put into a community, alarms go off, a red flag is raised, and distributors are notified,” says Stein.
“It will ensure that no more communities are flooded with opioids like it has been in the past few decades.”
The lawsuits highlight the actions of companies in times of crisis
Although the companies admitted no wrongdoing in the deal, the opioid lawsuits have exposed bare corporate practices that the state attorney general says are deeply troubling.
In some cases, drug dealers continue to ship large quantities of drugs to small rural communities despite warnings that drugs like Oxycontin are being diverted and sold on the market. black.
An email shared among executives at AmerisourceBergen – made public for the first time in a state trial last year in West Virginia – those accused of opioid addiction, describes them as “opium” and calls Oxycontin “opium”.. “
With this $26 billion settlement now approved, negotiations continue over a separate opioid settlement involving Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, and members of the Sackler family that owns the company. private.
That deal, if finalized, is expected to include payments of up to $6 billion.
Meanwhile, opioid-related lawsuits continue in state and federal courts across the country focusing primarily on pharmacy chains that sell large quantities of opioid drugs directly to consumers.
