Drug distributors, J&J agree to finalize opioid settlement

(Reuters) — The three largest U.S. drug distributors and drug-maker Johnson & Johnson have agreed to finalize a proposed $26 billion settlement resolving claims by states and local governments that they helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Distributors McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp. and Cardinal Health Inc., along with J&J, had until Friday to decide whether enough cities and counties nationally had opted to join the landmark settlement to justify moving forward with it.

The deal aims to resolve more than 3,000 lawsuits, largely by state and local governments, seeking to hold the companies responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths over the last two decades.

The distributors on Friday said there was “sufficient participation” to proceed. Charles Lifland, an attorney for J&J, in a letter on Thursday reviewed by Reuters, told lawyers for the states and local governments it also had determined there had been a “sufficient resolution” of the claims.

The announcement paves the way for the companies to begin making payments to the governments in April, money that officials say will be used to fund treatment and other programs aimed at addressing the health crisis.

“Because of the money, there will be people alive next year who otherwise would have died,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a lead settlement negotiator, said in an interview.

The lawsuits accuse the distributors of lax controls that allowed massive amounts of addictive painkillers to be diverted into illegal channels, and that drug-makers, including J&J, downplayed the risk of addiction when marketing the pain medicines.

The proposed settlement, which was first announced in July, calls for the distributors to pay up to $21 billion over 18 years and J&J to pay up to $5 billion over nine years.

Most states are settling. All four companies continue to face claims in Alabama, Oklahoma, Washington and West Virginia. New Hampshire declined to settle with J&J as well.

Peter Mougey, a plaintiffs lawyer at the law firm Levin Papantonio involved in the negotiations, said ultimately over 7,000 local governments opted into the settlement.

It is likely the biggest, though not the last, settlement to result from opioid litigation.

This month, the Sackler family owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma in its bankruptcy proposed a revised settlement worth up to $6 billion that would resolve claims the company fueled the epidemic. Drug-maker Mallinckrodt this month won bankruptcy court approval for a $1.7 billion settlement.

Other drug-makers, such as Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.,  and major pharmacy chains remain in litigation. Talks with those companies are ongoing, Mr. Stein said.

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