States Might Opt For Smaller Opioid Deal Amid Crisis

States Might Opt For Smaller Opioid Deal Amid Crisis

Introduction

A Morgan Stanley analysis states that companies alleged the opioid crisis might make a smaller settlement with U.S. states in return for faster payments as local governments are facing a financial crisis due to the global pandemic outbreak.

According to analyst Ricky Goldwasser, a settlement amount of $18 billion with a $14.6 billion upfront payment would be considered sound for the three-drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp., McKesson Corp., and Cardinal Health Inc.

The novel coronavirus has taken the focus from the opioid lawsuits claiming drugmakers and distributors of intentionally not informing about the addictive nature and consequences of the drug and failing to halt large suspect purchases.

Last month, the U.S. Attorney for Colorado, Jason R. Dunn, announced that Omnicare Inc., a subsidiary of CVS Health, has agreed to compensate $15.3 million in penalties to settle allegations of dispensing opioids and other drugs without a valid prescription.

All opioid lawsuits are consolidated under MDL No. 2804, presided by U.S. District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio Dan Aaron Polster.

The term “opioids” consists of compounds that are extracted from the poppy seed as well as semi-synthetic and synthetic compounds with similar properties that can interact with opioid receptors in the brain. Opioids are normally used for the treatment of pain and include medicines such as morphine, fentanyl, and tramadol.

Their prolonged use, misuse, and use without medical supervision can lead to opioid dependence and other health problems. The pharmacological effects of opioids can cause breathing problems, and overdose can lead to death.

Opioids are a class of drugs that act on the nerve cells in the body and brain to relieve pain. There are different types of opioids like Buprenorphine, Butorphanol, Codeine, Fentanyl, Oxycodone. Hydrocodone, Hydromorphone, and Hydromorphone are opioids that are not commonly used.

Opioids are on the market for ages and have been used basically for pain relief for post-surgical pain, cancer-related pain, chronic or persistent pain. Opioids when used in proper dosage and along with a combination of other pain treatments, work in relieving pain successfully, unless there is a misuse or abuse of the drug.

Companies manufacturing Opioids convinced the medical community that these medications were not addictive and were purely beneficial. This belief raised the number of prescriptions and sales unwarrantedly, resulting in a mass misuse of these drugs, to the extent that this was identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a public issue and named it an 'Opioid crisis'.

According to WHO, about 0.5 million deaths are due to drug use. Almost 70% of these deaths are related to opioids, and more than 30% of those deaths are caused by overdose. Opioid overdoses have increased in recent years in many parts of the world. In the United States of America (USA) the number of people dying due to opioid overdose increased by 120% from 2010 and 2018, and two-thirds of opioid-related overdose deaths in 2018 in the USA involved synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and its analogs.