Allergan Makes Opioid Lawsuit Settlement Deal

Allergan Makes Opioid Lawsuit Settlement Deal

Introduction

On Friday 30, Allergan PLC made a $5 million settlement with two Ohio counties involved in the ongoing bellwether cases in multidistrict opioid litigation.

Allergan agreed to pay  $1.9 million to Summit County and $3.1 million to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which would end the opioid lawsuit against the drugmaker, way before the upcoming trial on October 21. This is the second deal in the MDL after Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. made a settlement with the counties for $10 million last week.

The Dublin-headquartered drugmaker said that it doesn’t have liability for generic opioids, as those assets were sold to Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2016. It also said, since 2013, it did not actively market any opioid products. Judge Polster said that in light of the Allergan settlement, the court would not allow the cities of Akron and Cleveland to include Allergan in motions on summary judgment in any subsequent trials.

Navin Jacob, a UBS analyst, indicates that Allergan would not be able to escape such a small settlement. Especially when there are rumors of Purdue making the settlement between $650 million to $4.25 billion. While Teva is estimated to pay $140 million to $1.84 billion for their part in collective damages that have affected 702,000 lives from 1999 to 2017 alone.

In the recent report, Jacobs state that Allergan could end up paying between $186 million to $309 million to resolve the settlement. 

It must be noted that Allergan has not done any promotion for opioids since 2013, as per their press release, which was issued this past Friday. The painkiller drug manufacturer also stated in the press release that Allergan understands the seriousness of the opioid overdose crisis and has had a history of supporting the safe practice for use of prescription medications. AbbVie Inc is also working on the process to acquire Allergan in a $60B deal. 

Federal health officials have already alerted that opioids painkiller drugs account for nearly 70% of all drug overdoses. Approximately 3,100 deaths were caused due to opioid overdoses in 2013 and the figure has exceeded 36,000 by 2019.

Opioid lawsuits are consolidated under MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) presided by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster.