The counties of Ohio when drug companies settle $ 260 million in opioid epidemic case and avert trial
Details of the deal were announced later Monday morning. Late last night the companies were still negotiating.
Going to trial could have cost the drug companies more than $ 8 billion if Cuyahoga County Municipalities and the Summit were allocated all the money they sought. It buys companies time to try to make a more comprehensive settlement with the 2400 cities, counties, Native American tribes and others who have sued the drug industry. Their cases have been consolidated into a scattered "multidistrict lawsuit" before a federal judge here.
The Ohio counties would receive $ 21[ads1]5 million in cash from distributors and another $ 20 million from Teva, according to people aware of the settlement, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. Teva would also supply another $ 25 million in medicines for addiction.
The settlement with the four companies follows the collapse of an extraordinary effort Friday to reach an agreement covering all of the cases. U.S. District Court Judge Dan Aaron Polster summoned the chief executives of the three major distributors and representatives of the other two companies to his courtroom here in an attempt to hammer out an agreement.
Also called were the plaintiffs' attorneys and four state attorneys general who represented dozens of states that have negotiated with the drug companies. Almost every state has sued a number of companies in state courts.
Polster, who has been calling for a mass settlement for nearly two years, shot between the parties and tried to find common ground. But after about 10 hours of talks, the negotiations ended without a deal.
More than 200,000 people have died from drug overdoses over the last two decades, and another 200,000 have succumbed to heroin and illicit fentanyl overdoses, which are now the most important drug driving the crisis.
The county's argument rests mainly on the large volume of drugs the companies poured into northeastern Ohio. They claim that distributors, motivated by profits, did little to monitor doses that spilled out into the black market, ignoring obvious signs as they filled order by order.
They claim that floods created a "public order disturbance" that threatened residents' health and seeks $ 7.2 billion to remedy the crisis. They also want another billion in compensation.
Polster has determined that if the jury finds the companies accountable, he will decide how much they must pay to remedy the general order disturbance.
In August, an Oklahoma judge found health care giant Johnson & Johnson responsible for the opioid crisis, ordering the company to pay the state $ 572 million on a similar public order disruption claim. After a seven-week trial, Judge Thad Balkman agreed with the state's assertion that the company had threatened public health by aggressively marketing opioids and by importing and processing the oxycodone raw materials.
Johnson & Johnson have appealed that decision. [19659002] In this case, the counties of Cuyahoga and Summit also claim that the companies worked together as a drug cartel, conspiring to expand the market, fraudulently market their products and minimize dependency risks.
The drug companies deny the charges and claim that they supplied legitimate drugs. to patients suffering from cancer and other painful conditions and complied with regulations set by the DEA and the Food and Drug Administration. They also refuse to work at a concert, claiming that the counties cannot prove a direct link between their behavior and the damages or expenses incurred.
