Johnson & Johnson and the three largest drug distributors in the United States have agreed to proceed with a proposed $26 billion settlement to more than 3,000 civil lawsuits filed by states and local governments over the companies’ role in the opioid epidemic, which has claimed the lives of nearly half a million Americans.
Through Janssen, a pharmaceutical business, Johnson & Johnson will pay $5 billion over nine years in annual payments, while the three drug distributors — Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson – will contribute a total of $21 billion over twice as long.
The funds will be distributed to states and local governments that agreed to the arrangement in exchange for the dismissal of civil cases against the four corporations and a promise not to take legal action in the future.
The first payments will be made in April, with at least 85 percent of the settlement going toward addiction treatment and prevention initiatives.
The deal, according to Johnson & Johnson and the three medication distributors, is not an admission of guilt or culpability, and they continue to deny any wrongdoing.
It’s the second-largest civil litigation settlement in US history, after only the $206 billion tobacco deal from 1998.
The $26 billion settlement is the most recent in a long line of opioid-related agreements. After deciding that Johnson & Johnson was largely responsible for the state’s opioid problem, an Oklahoma judge ordered the firm to pay $572 million in 2019, while the company settled a similar action in New York for $230 million in June.
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