This announcement allows $26 billion to flow to almost every state in the U.S.
The settlements, taken together, are the largest among many opioid-related case currently being played out across the nation. These settlements are expected to give a substantial boost to efforts to reverse the crisis in areas that have been affected by it, including many rural parts of America.
The settlement was announced by Johnson & Johnson and AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health last year. However, the deal was conditional on the participation of a critical mass state and local governments.
Friday was the deadline to notify the companies if they felt sufficient state and local governments had agreed to the settlement and renounce their right to sue. Four companies informed lawyers representing the governments that they had met their thresholds, but didn’t specify a specific number. By April, the money could begin flowing to thousands of municipalities and counties as well as to states.
Joe Rice, who was one of the leading lawyers representing local governments in the litigation that resulted in the settlement, stated that “we’re never going be able to immediately solve this problem.” “What we are trying to do is give many small communities the chance to solve some of their problems.”
Victims will not receive any settlement money directly
The majority of settlement money is needed to address the opioid epidemic. However, it will not go directly to the victims or their families. Local government funding for addiction and education is essential.
Kathleen Noonan is the CEO of Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, Camden, N.J. She stated that a portion of settlement money should be used for housing people who have addictions and are currently homeless.
She said, “We have clients that have trouble staying clean to make it into a shelter.” “We want to stabilize them so they can recover,” she said.
Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen said that officials may use settlement money to fund a public education campaign warning about the dangers posed by fentanyl. They want more drug counselors to be sent out on the streets, additional social workers to be placed in municipal courts, and funds for anti-addiction medication in the county jail.
Officials from across the country are looking at ways to use the money for similar priorities.
California Governor Gavin Newsom proposes using $50 million of California’s $86 million state share for youth opioid education, treatment providers training, data collection, and distribution of naloxone (a drug that reverses overdoses)
According to Danielle Wang French, a Broward County lawyer, there could be 70 or 75 beds in the county-run detoxification center, which is currently 50.
She said that the settlement was not sufficient but was a good starting point.
Encouragement to local governments to “strategize.”
As fatal overdoses continue to plague the U.S., it is important that public-health experts urge governments to make sure people who are addicted have access to treatment. They stress the importance of funding programs that have been proven effective, collecting data about their efforts, and launching prevention efforts for young people. All this while emphasizing racial equality.
Joshua Sharfstein, who was formerly secretary of Maryland Department of Health and is now vice dean of public Health at Johns Hopkins University, said, “It shouldn’t be: Ready, Set, Spend.” It should be: Think, strategize and spend.
The four companies also reached a separate $590 million settlement agreement with the nation’s federally recognized Native American Tribes. The case is worth approximately $2 billion and will be used to pay fees and expenses for lawyers who spent many years on it.
New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson will have nine years to pay $5 billion of its share. Conshohocken (Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen); Columbus, Ohio-based Cardinal Health and Irving, Texas’ McKesson all agreed to pay $21 billion each over 18 years. States must get their local governments to agree to the maximum amount in order to reach it.
J&J will stop selling opioids
Settlements go far beyond money. J&J has announced that it will not sell prescription opioids again. Distributors agree to provide data to a clearinghouse that will help identify prescription drugs being diverted to black markets.
They aren’t admitting any wrongdoing, and they continue to defend themselves against claims that they contributed to the opioid crisis. These claims were brought by entities not involved in the settlements.
Contrast this with the series of public health settlements made in the 1990s with companies involved in tobacco. In these cases, large chunks of settlement money were used by states to fund budget gaps or other priorities.
Each state will receive a different amount under the opioid settlement. This is based on the severity of the crisis as well as the population. The money is also shared with county and local governments. A few states, including Alabama, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, Washington, West Virginia, have not agreed to all or part of this settlement. This is mainly because they are either preparing for trial or have already made deals.
Lisa Davey, a Maryville Addiction Treatment Center recovery specialist, was in Camden this week giving out naloxone to people and asking if they would like to get treatment.
Davey stated that she would like to see more funding for detoxification and treatment programs to ensure people stay in them longer. She said that users can still detoxify and go back to the streets looking for drugs in a matter of days.
She said, “They need to take more time to recover.”
Synthetic opioids on the rise
Anthony P., a 46-year-old man who picked up clean needles said that he had been struggling with addiction since he grew up. He expressed his desire to see an effort to reduce the supply of fentanyl, and other synthetic opioids, which are leading to high overdose deaths.
He said, “Fentanyl has to go.”
Martha Chavis is the president and CEO at Camden Area Health Education Center , which runs the needle exchange. Users from far-flung areas travel to Camden to obtain clean needles and test their drugs for Fentanyl.
Hartford police say that 100 bags of fentanyl found in the bedroom of a 13-year-old boy in Connecticut was responsible for his death in January. Police in Hartford are currently investigating how the teenage victim got the powerful opioid.
This settlement with J&J, the three distributors is a significant step towards resolving the huge number of lawsuits in the U.S. regarding liability for the epidemic that caused the deaths of over 500,000 Americans over two decades.
Other companies include McKinsey, a business consultant, and Endo, Mallinckrodt, and Teva drugmakers. They have also reached national settlements, or a number of local ones.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries reached a $225m settlement in a Texas opioid case. The settlement was made over claims that the Isreal-based drugmaker had improperly marketed addictive pain medication. Reuters reported. After a landmark New York case in December that found Teva guilty of contributing to the state’s opioid crisis, the settlement was reached.
Teva stated to CBS News that it was preparing an appel and asking for a mistrial. The plaintiffs claimed there was “no causal connection between Teva’s conduct (including its marketing) and any harm to public officials in the state.”
Purdue Pharma, the OxyContin manufacturer, and several states are currently in mediation with U.S. Bankruptcy Court to attempt to reach a national settlement. Purdue Pharma rejected a December bankruptcy settlement because of a provision which would have protected family members of the founding Sackler family and prevented them from being sued.
Impact of the Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the crisis. U.S. opioid-related death rates reached a record high of more than 76,000 deaths in the twelve months ending April 2021. This is largely due to the widespread use of fentanyl, and other laboratory-made drugs. The Lancet medical journal published a report that projected that over 1.2 million Americans would die from opioid overdoses in the next five years.
John F. Kelly is a Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine. He said that he would like to see the money from settlements not only go for treatment, recovery, support efforts, but also to create systems to prevent another epidemic.
He suggested that a national board or organization be established to “prevent this type of lack of oversight from occurring again — where industry can create a health hazard for the public,” he stated.
