The state attorney general of Illinois announced that the state would receive $760 million from the pharmaceutical distributors as part of the opioid settlement for their role in the drug crisis.
The state would get the amount from the national opioid settlement of $26 billion. The funds are expected to be transferred to states and local governments as early as April. The maximum amount of the funds would be used by the state to conduct programs related to prevention and recovery from opioid addiction.
Nearly all the Illinois counties have signed the agreement along with 104 municipalities. A state panel will determine the individual payments of the local governments by considering the shipped amount of opioids, population, overdose deaths and opioid usage rates.
The deal was announced last year and has been finalized earlier this week after a majority of the local and state governments signed it. The funds would soon be transferred to the respective governments to deal with the pandemic.
The United States has witnessed more than 500,000 opioid-related deaths over the last two decades. The death rate has increased during the coronavirus pandemic as more than 76,000 people died of using opioids in 12 months until April 2021.
The $26 billion national opioid settlement includes funds from drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J) along with three major drug distributors of the U.S namely AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. J&J will pay a share of $5 billion, and the remaining amount of $21 billion would be paid by the distributors.
