A bipartisan group of state attorneys general announced Friday morning that it has reached an agreement in principle with the pharmaceutical company Allergan worth $2.37 billion to settle more than 2,500 lawsuits related to opioids suffered by states, local governments, and tribes across the country during the course of the event. opioid epidemic.
The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a quarterly earnings report on Friday by Allergan’s parent company, AbbVie, described the amount as “a fee related to the settlement of litigation related to Allergan’s past sales of opioid products.”
The proposed deal is a companion to the $4.25 billion deal in principle announced earlier this week from Teva Pharmaceuticals. Lawyers familiar with the negotiations said that, if a majority of states and communities sign off, the aggregate agreement, when finalized, could be worth $6.6 billion. This is higher than the nationwide agreement with Johnson & Johnson or an offer from Purdue Pharma, opioid makers with a much higher public profile.
The transactions are linked in large part because, in 2016, Teva purchased Allergan’s generic drug catalog, including its substantial opioid business. Teva’s decision this week depends in part on Allergan reaching its own settlement over opioid liability.
Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa, whose office led the bipartisan group in negotiations with Allergan and Teva. “We continue to make it a priority to hold manufacturers accountable, while ensuring victims of this disease get the help they need.”
Unlike Teva’s settlement, whereby plaintiffs can choose to receive part of the payment for drug overdoses and drug addiction treatment instead of cash, Allergan’s offer is all cash. face and no product, said attorneys familiar with the negotiations. Teva’s payments to states and communities will be disbursed over 13 years, while Allergan’s will be over six years. Both drug companies’ amounts presumably include settlement figures announced over the past year with several states and counties.
Both Allergan and Teva sell branded opioid pain relievers as well as generic drugs. Lawyers for thousands of organizations assert that these manufacturers, like many others, exaggerate the benefits of opioids to doctors and the public and downplay the drug’s addictive properties. In addition, although companies are required to report suspicious orders to authorities, neither has done so, the lawyers said.
Teva has said that the potential settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.
Transactions still have a long way to go before the money actually starts flowing to the communities. Issues such as allocating funds, more closely monitoring suspicious orders, and creating a public archive of internal documents remain unresolved.
Josh Stein, the attorney general of North Carolina, commented on the arc of the opioid pandemic and the lawsuits that have emerged from it. “In 2020, nine North Carolinians die from opioid overdoses,” he said. “No amount of money can repair such a loss. But there is hope for recovery, and thanks to our continued efforts to hold these companies accountable, people across the state are getting the treatment and support they need to stay healthy. And we’re not done yet.”
