Drug distributors, J&J agree to finalize $26 billion opioid settlement

[February 25, 2022]    By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) - The three largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson have agreed to finalize a proposed $26 billion settlement resolving claims by states and local governments that they helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

The Johnson & Johnson logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 29, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The distributors, McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc, and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson had until Friday to decide whether enough cities and counties nationally had opted to join the landmark settlement for $26 billion to justify moving forward with it.

The three distributors said in a statement they agreed to pay roughly $19.5 billion over 18 years to resolve the claims.

In a letter reviewed by Reuters, Charles Lifland, an attorney for J&J, told lawyers for the states and local governments it determined there had been a "sufficient resolution" of the claims to proceed with the deal.

J&J did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for additional comment.

The deal aims to resolve more than 3,000 lawsuits largely by state and local governments seeking to hold the companies responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the last two decades..

The companies did not admit to wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Bill Berkrot and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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