Sources: States turn down $18B opioid-case offer
Arkansas presses litigation, but AG says deal is possible
Twenty-one states are rejecting an $18 billion offer by McKesson Corp. and other opioid distributors to resolve nationwide litigation over their handling of the highly addictive painkillers, according to people familiar with the talks.
In a letter sent to lawyers for McKesson, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. this week, the states’ attorneys general said the distributors’ settlement offer is unacceptable “as currently structured.”
The companies would pay the combined $18 billion over 18 years, according to the deal’s current iteration. The one-paragraph letter’s first three signatures were from the attorneys general of Florida, Ohio and Connecticut.
“I am focused on the lawsuits that I have filed against the opioid manufacturers and distributors, but am willing to consider additional settlement offers,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement. “I am confident we will secure the best outcome for Arkansans and our communities that have suffered at the hands of those responsible for this crisis.”
A copy of the letter was read to Bloomberg News on Friday by people who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the talks. Settlement negotiations involving attorneys general, the distributors and opioid-makers have been going on for years.
“McKesson is focused on finalizing a global settlement structure that would serve as the best path forward to provide billions of dollars in immediate funding and relief to states and local communities,” David Matthews, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based company, said in a statement.
“We continue to work toward a nationwide settlement that would bring substantial and immediate relief to communities impacted by the opioid epidemic,” said Erica Lewis, spokeswoman for the Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health.
“We were disappointed to hear that some states do not currently understand the merits of the global settlement framework that the distributors have been discussing with the attorneys’ general over the past many months,” Gabe Weissman, a spokesman for Chesterbrook, Pa.-based AmerisourceBergen, said in an emailed statement.
“We remain committed to a fair, negotiated resolution, but we are continuing to defend ourselves in litigation and actively prepare for upcoming trials.”
The distributors’ offer is part of a roughly $50 billion proposal to resolve more than 2,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments seeking to recoup billions in tax dollars they have spent addressing the costs of the U.S. opioid epidemic.
As part of that offer, Johnson & Johnson — which at one time produced poppies, the raw ingredient in opioids — would pay $4 billion to resolve suits against it. Another opioid-maker, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Inc., would donate $23 billion worth of the generic addiction-fighting drug Suboxone and pay $250 million in cash over 10 years, to end litigation.
Drugmakers are accused of pushing opioid prescriptions on doctors across the U.S. and downplaying the risks of addiction, while distributors and pharmacies are accused of turning a blind eye to suspicious orders and failing to meet government-compliance requirements covering the painkillers.
More than 400,000 Americans have died of opioid overdoses over two decades as U.S. addiction rates surged, and local communities have sued to recover their expenses for medical treatment and police services.