Drug Distributors and J.&J. Announce $26 Billion Deal to End Opioids Lawsuits [View all]

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Source: New York Times

After two years of wrangling, the country’s three major drug distributors and a pharmaceutical giant have reached a $26 billion deal with states that would release some of the biggest companies in the industry from all legal liability in the opioid epidemic. The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general. The offer will now go out to every state and municipality in the country for approval.

If enough of them formally sign on to it, billions of dollars from the companies could begin to be released to help communities pay for addiction treatment and prevention services and other steep financial costs of the epidemic. In return, the states and cities would drop thousands of lawsuits against the companies and pledge not to bring any future action. The settlement binds only these four companies — the drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Johnson & Johnson — leaving thousands of other lawsuits against many other pharmaceutical defendants, including manufacturers and drugstore chains, in the mammoth nationwide litigation still unresolved.

But these four companies are widely seen as among the defendants with the deepest pockets. In an emailed statement, Michael Ullmann, executive vice president and general counsel of Johnson & Johnson, said: “We recognize the opioid crisis is a tremendously complex public health issue, and we have deep sympathy for everyone affected. This settlement will directly support state and local efforts to make meaningful progress in addressing the opioid crisis in the United States.”

In a joint statement, the three distributors said: “While the companies strongly dispute the allegations made in these lawsuits, they believe the proposed settlement agreement and settlement process it establishes are important steps toward achieving broad resolution of governmental opioid claims and delivering meaningful relief to communities across the United States.” The distributors, which by law are supposed to monitor quantities of prescription drug shipments, have been accused of turning a blind eye for two decades while pharmacies across the country ordered millions of pills for their communities.



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/health/opioids-distributors-settlement.html