During the 2 1/2 hour closing arguments in an ongoing opioid trial, brought by New York State and counties alleging the drugmaker Allergan flooded the state with opioids, the firm agreed to a $200 million settlement. The lawsuit was specifically against AbbVie Inc, a company that is part of Allergan, to settle the allegations, said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The trial also includes defendants Anda, plus more subsidiaries of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries LTD, and removes Allergan from the lawsuit.
Prior to the Wednesday $200 million settlement agreed to by Allergan, there has been about $1.5 billion already settled in this trial, also resulting in the legal release from the case for about six other pharmaceutical firms.
To date, none of the drug companies who reached settlements have agreed they did anything wrong. The list of pharmaceutical companies that were sued includes Allergan; Endo International PLC, which settled for $50 million; Johnson & Johnson, which settled to pay $230 million; Rite Aid, CVS Health Corp, and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.
Also settled recently in New York, the largest distributors of opioids in the country, McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp, and Cardinal Health, Inc, agreed to a total payment to New York of $1.1 billion. Their settlement came as a result of a national $26 billion settlement proposed to both distributors plus manufacturers. This national settlement, separate from aforementioned New York State and counties settlements, resulted after over 3,000 complaints were filed across the US by counties, states, hospitals, tribes and others who claim drugmakers marketed opioids to Americans much more than their conditions required, resulting in an opioid epidemic.
The lawsuit claims numerous drug firms and their distributors operated using untruthful marketing, no tracking of the distribution and no reports of suspicious orders for the opioids. This chain of actions by the drug companies, prosecutors said, resulted in a surge in the opioid epidemic in New York, resulting in both billions of dollars in costs plus numerous fatalities due to the dangerous drug.
AG James said the $200 million settlement from Allergan will be added to already established funds for opioid education, prevention, treatment, and other programs targeting the deadly epidemic.
In a public statement, James said, “While no amount of money will ever make up for the thousands who lost their lives or became addicted to opioids across our state, these funds will be used to prevent future devastation.”
Due to the ongoing lawsuit filed in 2019, which includes numerous pharmaceutical companies, New York State aligned with counties to tackle the cases in unison in one trial.
The US government released grim statistics last month, stating that in one year, from April 2020 to April 2021, 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. The grim data notes the very first time US overdose deaths hit six figures.
The most popular drug resulting in death over the past year is the opioid fentanyl, which killed more people than all other drugs combined. These historic 100,000 deaths due to overdoses represent a tremendous surge in drug deaths, accounting for a 28 percent increase in just one year.
The CDC reports, "Opioids—mainly synthetic opioids (other than methadone)—are currently the main driver of drug overdose deaths. 72.9% of opioid-involved overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids."
