21 states reject opioid makers’ settlement offer of $18 billion over 18 years

[Rogue Valley]

21 states reject opioid makers’ settlement offer of $18 billion over 18 years

2/14/20
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. earlier 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. A copy of the letter was read to Bloomberg News on Friday by the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the talks. Settlement negotiations involving a group of attorneys general, the distributors and opioid makers have been ongoing for years.

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 expenses on more drug treatment and police services. Lawyers for New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, along with private plaintiffs’ lawyers representing two New York counties, are slated to start presenting their cases against McKesson and the other distributors March 23 in Long Island. Thousands of other suits have been consolidated before a federal judge in Cleveland for pre-trial information exchanges and test trials.

8 members of the Sackler family - owners of opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma - are facing criminal charges. Executives at all the other pharmaceutical firms that pushed opioids should also face criminal charges. Financial settlements just don't cut it after their greed and avarice led to the addiction and deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.