Opioid settlement
Group of states, municipalities to reveal settlement with major pharmaceutical distributors
State close to deal with pharmaceutical distributors.
Connecticut is among a group of states and municipalities poised to reach a historic $26 billion deal this week that would settle thousands of lawsuits against major pharmaceutical distributors for their role in driving the opioid crisis.
The potential deal with the United States’ three major pharmaceutical distributors — Mckesson Corp., Cardinal Health and Amerisourcebergen — and the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson would conclude a yearslong legal battle.
“Our negotiations are progressing well and potentially nearing their completion,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Tuesday in a joint statement along with the attorneys general of North Carolina, Massachusetts, New York, Delaware, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio. “We look forward to bringing muchneeded dollars home to our states to help people recover from opioid addiction and to fundamentally change the opioid manufacturing and distributing industries so this never happens again.”
The agreement is contingent on the support of at least 44 states, 95% of cities, counties and other entities suing the companies and 90% of nonlitigating jurisdictions, according to the Washington Post. Native American nations are negotiating separate settlements.
The potential deal arrives at a time when opioid overdose deaths are at a record high in the United States. Overdose deaths soared to an estimated 93,000 last year, a 29% increase from the high of 72,000 drug overdose deaths in the previous year. Overall, the opioid epidemic is estimated to have cost the United States more than $1 trillion from 2001 to 2017.
As part of the settlement, the distributors would have 17 years to pay $21 billion; Johnson & Johnson — which made a since-discontinued opioid painkiller and fentanyl patch and supplied opium-based ingredients to other drug manufacturers — would pay $5 billion over nine years. The funds will be required to be spent primarily on various abatement measures, including the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, recovery services, opioid use disorder treatments and resources, care for babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome and preventive measures for overprescribing and misuse, according to the Washington Post.
Tong declined to comment on the specifics of the potential multibillion dollar deal for Connecticut.
“Money’s always an issue,” said Ben Proto, the new Republican state chairman.
Logan could not be reached Monday.
Republicans held three of Connecticut’s five U.S. House seats as recently as 2006, when Nancy Johnson of the 5th and Rob Simmons of the 2nd were unseated. Chris Shays of the 4th, the sole GOP survivor in 2006, was unseated by Democrat Jim Himes in 2008.
Republican gubernatorial candidates have carried the 5th District in recent cycles, but Hayes won by relatively comfortable and nearly identical margins in each of her two outings: 56% to 44% in 2018, and 55% to 43% in 2020.
The money raised by Hayes in six months this year approximates the $430,000 total budget of David X. Sullivan, her opponent in 2020. Manny Santos, the GOP nominee in 2018, raised only $76,000.
About half the money raised by Hayes this year came from political action committees, including one financed by Walmart and another by the National Education Association.
Hayes, a former national teacher of the year, is the first Black woman elected to Congress from Connecticut. Logan was the only Black member of the Senate Republican caucus when he lost last year to Jorge Cabrera, 52% to 48%.
The cash on hand reported by Hayes as of June 30 was exceeded by only one other incumbent: Himes had $1.8 million.
Down-ballot Democrats can expect to benefit from a get-out-the-vote effort with two deep-pocketed candidates leading the ticket: Gov. Ned Lamont, who spent $15 million in a largely self-funded campaign in 2018, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
With no serious opponent yet to emerge, Blumenthal has raised more than $1 million in each of the two quarterly reporting periods this year and has banked $6 million in cash for his reelection to a third term.
Lamont is not expected to formally announce his campaign until early next year.
Themis Klarides, the former state House Republican leader, has filed candidate papers that allow her to begin spending her own money on a gubernatorial campaign, but not raise money.
She recently reported $63,000 in initial expenditures, hiring a consultant, Battleground Strategies, a media production company, Red October Productions, and a staffer, Sebastian Rougemont.
Bob Stefanowski, the GOP’S gubernatorial nominee in 2018, is weighing another run, but he has not filed exploratory or candidate committee papers.
The only statewide Democrat known to not be seeking reelection is Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.
Republicans are in rebuilding mode. Proto, who was elected state chair three weeks ago, took over a party that has no staff, thin finances and has lost state legislative seats in each of the past two cycles while holding no congressional seats or statewide constitutional offices.
“I’ve told people that if you expect that tomorrow morning we’re going to be the Florida state Republican Party, that’s probably not gonna happen,” Proto said. “But if you allow us the opportunity to rebuild this and build a solid foundation, which is going to take some time, then I think you’ll see good things happen.”
His initial focus is narrow: hiring an executive director, then providing support for a special election that gives Republicans a chance to win back a state Senate seat in Greenwich that had long been safe for the GOP. The vacancy was created by the resignation last month of Democratic Sen. Alex Kasser.
The special election will be held to decide who finishes Kasser’s term, which ends in 2022.