Two Major Corporate Opioid Payouts Could Top $32 Billion
The overwhelming majority of cash from these deals will go to reducing future addiction and death, with relatively small payouts to those already harmed, critics say.
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Some of the biggest U.S. corporations accused of catalyzing the opioid epidemic by making, distributing and selling opioids despite surging rates of addiction and overdose death could finalize payouts to victims and governments worth roughly $32 billion, reports NPR.
Two major negotiations, the largest involving major drug distributors and wholesalers AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, along with health products giant Johnson & Johnson, and the other concerning Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin, and its owners, members of the Sackler family, are nearing completion.
The first four firms have tentatively agreed to payouts totaling $26 billion, while Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers are nearing a deal now worth as much as $6 billion. All the companies involved in both negotiations have denied wrongdoing, with the Sacklers in specific still demanding total “release” from all future opioid liability in exchange for the payout.
Meanwhile, critics argue that the overwhelming majority of cash from these deals will go to reducing future addiction and death, with relatively small payouts to those already harmed. supporters of these settlements maintain they are the quickest way to resolve a legal morass while directing as much money as possible to easing one of the deadliest manmade public health crises in U.S. history.
Even if these deals are struck, lawsuits will continue against some of the largest companies that sold opioid pain medications, including major pharmacy chains like CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart, that also continue to deny any wrongdoing while so far refusing to negotiate similar settlements.
