signed by 52 American states and territories that Texas joined in July. Paxton has pushed for cities and counties to join the settlement with three pharmaceutical companies — McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — that have been accused of exacerbating the opioid crisis by overlooking the number of opioid pills that pharmacies ordered in the past two decades.
Texas and entities in the settlement will receive the money, which will principally go toward opioid overdose treatment, prevention and education, over the next 18 years. The agreement also includes a system that would track and report drug shipments across distributors. “The companies were sued for their role in creating and fueling the nationwide opioid epidemic,” Paxton said at a media event at LifePath Systems, a McKinney-based nonprofit that hason combating fallout from the opioid crisis. “The opioid crisis throughout the nation and the state of Texas is staggering.”
The three pharmaceutical companies, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment, have denied wrongdoing in past statements. “While the companies strongly dispute the allegations made in these lawsuits, they believe the proposed settlement agreement and settlement process it establishes … are important steps toward achieving broad resolution of governmental opioid claims and delivering meaningful relief to communities across the United States,” the companies said in aNearly half a million people died from overdoses involving opioids from 1999 to 2019, according to the U.S.So far, Texas has secured more than $1.