BFF-22 Drug companies near global settlement over opioid crisis

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BFF-22

US-LAWSUIT-DRUGS-ADDICTION-DEAL

Drug companies near global settlement over opioid crisis

CLEVELAND, Oct 22, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Three leading American drug
distributors and an Israeli drugmaker blamed for a deadly US opioid epidemic
settled a bellwether civil lawsuit with two Ohio counties Monday, opening the
door for a broader national settlement worth billions of dollars.

The $260 million deal with Ohio’s Summit and Cuyahoga counties set the
basis for a resolution of lawsuits by some 2,700 addiction-ravaged
communities nationwide that had joined the Cleveland case, the first in a
federal court to address the causes of a crisis that has wrecked the lives of
millions.

Late Monday officials from four states driving talks for a global
resolution for all those communities announced that they had a tentative
deal.

They said that the four companies in the two-county deal, Cardinal Health,
McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Teva Pharmaceuticals, along with a fifth
firm, Johnson & Johnson, had agreed to pay $22 billion in cash over 10 years
and $26 billion of addiction treatment drugs like suboxone to resolve the
suits.

“The opioid epidemic has ripped through our communities and left a trail of
death and destruction in its wake,” said North Carolina Attorney General Josh
Stein.

“This agreement is an important step in our progress to help restore
people’s lives.” – Hundreds of thousands of deaths –

It was not immediately clear if the proposed global settlement would be
accepted by the majority of the communities involved.

On Friday they rejected a previous version of the deal crafted by the four
states, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, judging the
original $18 billion in cash over 18 years as too small, lawyers’ fees too
high, and distribution of the funds designed more to help state governments
and less communities most impacted by the crisis.

Reeling from the massive human and financial burden of an addiction crisis
that has left more than 400,000 dead of overdoses over the past two decades.

Communities say they need funds now to support hospitals and emergency
services, and help families supporting addicts and children with addicted
parents or parents who have died.

The $260 million cash-and-drugs payout to the two Ohio counties is designed
to get funds into the communities quickly, local officials said.

“Cuyahoga County has seen thousands of people die over the last several
years. It’s a tragedy. Summit County is no different,” said Cuyahoga
prosecutor Michael O’Malley.

“Our hearts go out to the families who have been touched by this,” said
Ilene Shapiro, the chief executive of Summit County.

“Whatever we can do to help these families rebuild and get as healthy as
they can and move forward is what we are trying to do.” – Trial averted –

A trial would have examined allegations that the makers of the prescription
painkillers and pharmaceutical distributors pushed billions of pills into
communities without due care over two decades, making it excessively easy for
patients to become addicted and creating a permanent demand.

The companies reaped tens of billions of dollars in profits while overdose
deaths soared above 400,000 over two decades — more than 70,000 in 2017
alone.

Plaintiffs had amassed large amounts of evidence showing that the companies
knew they were fomenting an epidemic of addiction.

The deal, though, does not require the companies to admit wrongdoing.

“While the companies strongly dispute the allegations made by the two
counties, they believe settling the bellwether trial is an important stepping
stone to achieving a global resolution and delivering meaningful relief,” the
three giant distributors said in a statement. – Talks continue –

The attorneys general of the four states called the two-counties agreement
“an important step,” but said a final global settlement could take weeks.

“The global resolution on the table will distribute funds fairly between
states, counties and cities while also ensuring that these companies change
their business practices to prevent a public health crisis like this from
ever happening again,” they said.

Major drug manufacturers and distributors have already struck deals worth
billions of dollars with states and local governments around the country to
compensate them for the costs of the epidemic.

In August, Purdue Pharma, the producer of OxyContin, one of the leading
painkillers driving the addiction epidemic, reached a deal with 29 states and
territories to compensate them.

Purdue said the deal would cost it $10 billion and force it into
bankruptcy, but critics in states and localities that opposed the deal say it
is worth much less, and demanded the family that built Purdue, the Sacklers,
pay billions more out of their own fortune.

In an Oklahoma trial in August, drug maker Johnson & Johnson was ordered to
pay $572 million to compensate the state.

The company then reached a separate deal in the Cleveland case to pay the
two counties $20.4 million.

BSS/AFP/GMR/1022 hrs