Weekly Mass Torts Bulletin 2022-Mar-07

Virginia is all set to get $530 million in the coming months from the national opioid settlement with the manufacturers to fight the opioid crisis in the state.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said that the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority decided to send the money to the localities to decide how to use it for better prevention and recovery strategies from the addiction of drugs. Johnson & Johnson (J&J), along with three major drug distributors of the U.S would pay the settlement amount.

Region Ten, a community board service, sees the impact of the opioid crisis every day. It is supported by the Department of behavioral health and developmental services, so it would not get direct funding, but they expect the funds to deal with the opioid crisis in the communities by providing opioid prevention, treatment and recovery work.

The AG even informed that no matter from which county the plaintiff is from, he/she is liable to get the amount from the settlement to compensate the opioid harm.

The settlement amount will be disbursed from the national opioid settlement of $ 26 billion, which got the final approval earlier this week. The settlement agreement involves Johnson & Johnson (J&J) along with drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, who will pay $5 billion and $21 billion respectively as the share of the settlement.

The death rate due to opioids in the U.S. has increased drastically, with over 76,000 people dying in 12 months until April 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic. Over the last two decades, the country witnessed over 500,000 opioid-related deaths.

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.

A $26 billion national opioid settlement involving drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors has been finalized, and the funds would soon be consigned to every state and local government in the U.S.

The deal was announced last year, but its fate depended completely on the participation of a decent number of state and local governments. The settlement would reverse all the effects of the opioid crisis throughout the nation and would decently pay the people affected by the epidemic.

The settlement amount would not be directly handed to the victims of opioid addiction or their survivors as a huge amount of it would be initially required to deal with the epidemic. A portion of the amount would be used to provide housing to homeless people due to opioid addiction.

A spokesperson for the Camden County government said that the money allotted from the settlement would be used to run a public education campaign to warn about the dangers of fentanyl. The county would even put more social workers in municipal court, drug counselors on the streets and pay for anti-addiction medications in the county jail. Officials throughout the country are considering using the money for similar purposes.

Johnson and Johnson (J&J) will pay its share of $5 billion over the span of nine years. Whereas the distributors, including AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, will pay $21 billion over 18 years.