Drugmakers To Pay $15M For Opioid Settlements

Drugmakers To Pay $15M For Opioid Settlements

Introduction

Drugmakers Endo International Plc and Allergan Plc have agreed to pay $15 million to settle the opioid crisis and make an exit from the lead bellwether cases in multidistrict opioid litigation.

The tentative deal was announced on Tuesday, way ahead of the first trial out of the 2,000 lawsuits pending in a federal court in Cleveland. The remaining defendants will face the trial on October 21 which includes drugmakers Purdue Pharma LP, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, and Johnson & Johnson and drug distributors McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc, and AmerisourceBergen Corp.

Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it would pay $10 million and donate up to $1 million worth of its blood pressure drug Vasostrict and its emergency allergy treatment Adrenalin to Cuyahoga and Summit counties. Allergan tentatively agreed to pay $5 million to resolve claims against its branded opioids, excluding the claims involving its generic painkillers.

Meanwhile, on Monday, U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster appointed Christopher Seeger of Seeger Weiss LLP and Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC, to serve as interim, co-lead counsel for a proposed negotiation class.

Judge Dan Polster is presiding over all the opioid lawsuits consolidated under MDL No. 2804 (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation) brought by U.S. cities and counties of which most of the cases are filed largely by local governments, Native American tribes, and hospitals.

Endo International and Allergan are the first two pharmaceutical companies to resolve claims in Cuyahoga and Summit counties. The suits filed by the state that opioid manufacturers marketed and flooded the market with painkillers despite being aware of its risk and high level of addictiveness. Defendants involved in this suit also comprise Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt, and Cardinal Health.
 
The vice president and chief legal officer of Endo International, Matthew Maletta stated in his statement that settling the claim with payment of $10M can be considered as a favorable outcome for their organization. Matthew further said that the company will henceforth not enter into any wrongdoing as per the agreement. 
 
Opioid addiction in Northeast Ohio became the cause of death for thousands of deaths. The death rate was due to the high use of heroin, fentanyl, and other painkillers. The lawsuits also state that the huge amount of pills dumped in the market increase the addiction to these painkillers, as people chose cheaper heroin on the streets over prescription painkillers. 
 
A case for the opioid crisis that began in 2014 was the first in history where local government entities sued Big Pharma for causing painkiller addiction. The case brought by Oklahoma in 2019 was the first to go for trial where Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $572 million in an opioid lawsuit. Later, the verdict was reduced to $465 million, for which the appeal is still pending.
 
Federal health officials warned that opioids account for nearly 70% of all drug overdoses. 3,100 deaths were accounted for due to opioid overdoses in 2013 and the number has surpassed 36,000 by 2019.