Tentative USD 161.5 million settlement reached in US opioid trial

Attorneys for the state of West Virginia and two remaining pharmaceutical manufacturers have reached a tentative USD 161.5 million settlement just as closing arguments were set to begin in a seven-week trial over the opioid epidemic, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said on Wednesday.

Morrisey announced the development in court in the state's lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie's Allergan and their family of companies.

The judge agreed to put the trial on hold to give the parties the opportunity to reach a full settlement agreement in the upcoming weeks.

"We are very optimistic that we can do so," Morrisey said.

The trial started on April 4. The lawsuit accused the defendants of downplaying the risks of addiction associated with opioid use while overstating the benefits.

Under the tentative deal, West Virginia would receive more than USD 134.5 million in cash, while Teva would supply the state with USD 27 million worth of Narcan, a medication that can reverse opioid overdoses, restore breathing and bringing someone back to consciousness.

West Virginia had reached a USD 99 million settlement with drugmaker Johnson and Johnson's subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. last month over the drugmaker's role in perpetuating the opioid crisis in the state that has long led the nation in drug overdose deaths.

Before the trial started, Morrisey's office announced the state settled part of the lawsuit involving another defendant, Endo Health Solutions, for USD 26 million.

After years of lawsuits, drugmakers, distribution companies and some pharmacies have been settling cases over the toll of opioids.

In deals finalised this year, the three biggest distribution companies and drugmaker Johnson and Johnson agreed to settlements totalling USD 26 billion over time.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is in court trying to win approval for a national settlement including up to USD 6 billion in cash, plus using future profits from a remade version of the company to fight the opioid crisis.

In other settlements this year, the distributors have agreed to pay Washington state, which didn't participate in the national settlement with them, more than USD 500 million, and a group of companies are sending USD 276 million to Alabama.

In all, proposed and finalised settlements, judgements and criminal penalties over opioids have reached more than USD 47 billion since 2007. Much of the money is to be used only to address the crisis, which has been linked to the deaths of more than 500,000 Americans in the last two decades.

A relatively small portion of the settlement money – at least USD 750 million in the Purdue deal – is to be paid to individual victims and their survivors.

In Charleston, a separate bench trial wrapped up last summer in a federal lawsuit accusing AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson of fuelling the opioid crisis in Cabell County and the city of Huntington. That judge has not indicated when he will rule.

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