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States unveiled a historic $26 billion settlement with drug companies to resolve thousands of opioid-crisis lawsuits, paving the way for communities across the country to secure a jolt of funding to address an epidemic in painkiller addiction that hasn’t abated.
See: J&J to stop selling opioids for 10 years and will pay $5 billion as part of settlement
The nation’s three largest drug distributors — McKesson Corp.
MCK,
AmerisourceBergen Corp.
ABC,
and Cardinal Health Inc.
CAH,
— and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
have been negotiating the deal for more than two years, but Wednesday’s announcement signifies an important milestone that could clear the way for money to be received by states as soon as early next year.
An opioid crisis that has claimed half a million lives in the U.S. has triggered more than 3,000 lawsuits filed by states, local governments, Native American tribes, hospital groups and others against players in the pharmaceutical industry. The lawsuits allege drugmakers pushed their painkillers for uses far beyond what was medically necessary and that distributors and pharmacies didn’t do enough to halt masses of pills from flowing into communities.
The companies pushed back, saying they made and distributed a medically necessary and federally regulated product. But at the same time, the burdens of litigation — like turning over millions of internal documents, making employees available for depositions, and preparing for complex trials that could air embarrassing details—has sent many of the companies to the negotiating table.
An expanded version of this article appears on WSJ.com.
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