Credit: Richard B. Levine
NY: Controlled substance in New York
The three biggest U.S. drug distribution companies and the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson are on the verge of a $26 billion settlement covering thousands of government lawsuits over the toll of opioids across the U.S., a group of lawyers for local governments said Tuesday.
The national settlement is expected to be the biggest single settlement in the complicated universe of litigation over the opioid epidemic in the U.S. It won’t end the cases, but it would change them.
Lawyers said a full announcement could happen this week. But that would not be the end of it, rather the start of a monthslong process for state and local governments to decide whether to sign on.
“This is a nationwide crisis and it could have been and should have been addressed perhaps by other branches of government,” Paul Geller, one of the lead lawyers representing local governments across the U.S., said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “But this really is an example of the use of litigation for fixing a national problem.”
Three trials over opioids currently underway are expected to continue and others on court calendars across the U.S. are expected to begin in the coming months.
As a precursor to the bigger deal, New York reached an agreement Tuesday with the distribution companies AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson to settle an ongoing trial in the state. That deal alone would generate more than $1 billion to abate the damage done by opioids there. The trial is expected to continue, but the settlement leaves only three drug manufacturers as defendants.
“Today, we’re holding them accountable delivering more than $1 billion more into New York communities ravaged by opioids for treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Tuesday.
Other manufacturers, regional distribution companies and pharmacies will remain in the New York and other cases for now.
