On Friday 6, Mallinckrodt, a U.K. based pharmaceutical company, said that it would pay $24 million and donate up to $6 million in generic drugs to two Ohio counties to resolve their claims in the upcoming October 21 trial over the opioid crisis.
The drugmaker said the settlement was announced in principle with Cuyahoga and Summit counties over the allegations that the defendants fueled the opioid epidemic with a breakneck sales of painkillers and by underplaying the drugs' addiction risks. Both the counties will get much-needed support in the ongoing response to the opioid crisis as well as will get protection in any future insolvency proceeding by Mallinckrodt if the agreement is approved.
U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation said that "a jury will decide whether, under Ohio law, the opioid epidemic constitutes an "ongoing public nuisance," finding that underlying factual issues must first be determined at trial."
Cuyahoga and Summit counties, seeking several billion dollars to cope with the opioid epidemic's effects, had asked the court to award them partial summary judgment arguing that no reasonable fact-finder could determine the underlying factual issues. However, the motion was denied by Judge Polster on September 4, stating that it was a question that must wait till the full airing of facts at trial.
