The settlement clears the way for awards totaling $26 billion to be paid to recipients in nearly all US states. J&J’s share is $5 billion, payable over ten years. The distributors will have 18 years to pay the remainder.

This is believed to be the largest opioid settlement to date as well as a major step toward resolving the large number of US lawsuits over liability for the deaths of more than 500,000 people over the past two decades.

The four companies announced the plans for a settlement plan last year, but the deal took a considerable amount of time to work out with a sufficient number of state and local governments. Separately, they reached a $590 million settlement (included in the $26 billion) with Native American tribes.

Lawyers for local governments told news agencies the payout was not enough to deal with the remaining problems, but money needed to begin flowing. This will not go to opioid victims directly, but rather to local communities that will provide housing to addicts who are homeless.

Officials in some places will fund a public education campaign to warn about the dangers of products such as fentanyl, a component of branded drugs that were originally patented as OxyContin (Purdue Pharmaceutical), Xanax (Pfizer) and Adderall (Shire) but later widely marketed as generics.

Drugmakers such as Endo, Mallinckrodt and Teva have already reached local or national settlement with US states. OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma is negotiating a settlement as part of a bankruptcy deal. Consulting group McKinsey, also implicated, has reached several deals.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist