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A group of pharmaceutical companies and distributors agreed to pay $590 million to settle lawsuits connected to opioid addiction among Native American tribe members, according to a US court filing released Tuesday.
The agreement is the latest amid a deluge of litigation spawned by the US opioid crisis, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives over the last 20 years and ensnared some of the largest firms in the world of American medicine.
Pharmaceutical companies McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health had already struck a separate deal with the Cherokee tribe last September for $75 million.
According to documents filed in an Ohio federal court Tuesday by a committee of plaintiffs, the companies agreed to pay another $440 million over seven years to other Native American tribes.
The pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson, for its part, agreed to pay $150 million over two years to all the tribes, of which $18 million are destined for the Cherokee.
Native Americans have “suffered some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic of any population in the United States,” including the highest per-capita rate of opioid overdoses compared to other racial groups, according to the filing from the Plaintiffs’ Tribal Leadership Committee.
“The burden of paying these increased costs has diverted scarce funds from other needs and has imposed severe financial burdens on the tribal plaintiffs.”
Johnson & Johnson, McKesson and the other two companies in the accord — AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health — previously agreed to a $26 billion global settlement on opioid cases.
J&J said Tuesday the $150 million it agreed to pay in the Native American case has been deducted from what it owes in the global settlement.
“This settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing and the company will continue to defend…
Source : france24
