- The chief executives of the three largest U.S. drug distributors and a drugmaker have been summoned to appear before a federal judge to discuss a proposal to resolve thousands of lawsuits alleging they fueled the U.S. opioid crisis, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Those companies, along with Johnson & Johnson, have been negotiating a settlement they value at roughly $50 billion that would allow them to resolve 2,600 lawsuits brought nationwide, mostly by states and localities, people familiar with the matter said. Late Thursday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost raised concerns about the proposed deal with his counterparts in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas, who are leading negotiations.
Yost also said only a few states filed claims against the drug distributors and it would be unfair to treat all states the same in a settlement.Under the proposal, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health would pay $18 billion over 18 years and J&J would pay $4 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Opioids were responsible for roughly 400,000 overdose deaths in the United States from 1999 to 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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