AP/USA (Signal High) —– Four U.S. pharmaceutical companies will pay $26BB to settle claims in the opiod crisis.
Most of the funds from the settlement with manufacturers and distributers of opioids such as oxycodone will go to health care and drug treatment programs designed to east the opioid crisis. Drug wholesalers Amerisource Bergen ($6.1BB), Cardinal Health ($6BB), and McKesson ($7.4BB) will pay a combined $21BB, while manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, will contribute $5BB. None acknowledged any wrongdoing. The settlement resolves thousands of claims filed against the companies.
Thousands of communities across the U.S. will receive approximately $19.5BB over eighteen years. Payments are to begin in April, at a moment when the opioid epidemic has escalated dangerously. Many with opiod use disorder have shifted into taking fentanyl. Drug overdoses now kill more than 100,000 people in the U.S. every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Opiod lawsuits exposed company practices that include shipping vast quantities of pills to small, rural communities despite red flags that drugs like OcyTontin were being diverted and sold on the black market. One e-mail shared amongst executives at AmerisourceBergen described disparaged addicts as “hillbillies,” referring to OxyContin as “hillbilly heroin.”
Negotiations continue with Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family who own the private company.
+10,430+
Notice – Fair Use. This article may use copyrighted material in a manner that does not require approval of the copyright holder (i.e. journalism, critique, reporting of news). It is fair use under copyright law. Pursuant to section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, “the fair use of a copyrighted work […] for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.” – 17 U.S. Code § 107.
