The Washington state legal professional basic introduced a $149.5 million settlement Wednesday with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, greater than 4 years after the state sued the corporate over its function fueling the opioid dependancy disaster.
“They knew what the harm was. They did it anyway,” Legal professional Basic Bob Ferguson advised reporters Wednesday.
The legal professional basic’s announcement got here as opioid overdose deaths greater than doubled from 2019 to 2022, with 2,048 deaths recorded in 2022, in keeping with the newest numbers from the Washington State Division of Well being.
Below the deal, the state and native governments must spend $123.3 million to handle the opioid disaster, together with on substance abuse remedy, expanded entry to overdose-reversal medication and companies that help pregnant ladies on substances. The remainder of the cash would go towards litigation prices.
The hurt is “left now to policymakers to grapple with,” the legal professional basic stated, “or families and individuals who grapple in a very different way with the real tragedy of addiction.”
The settlement settlement nonetheless requires approval from a choose. If authorised, the deal would ship over $20 million extra to reply to the opioid disaster than if the state had signed onto a national settlement in 2021 involving Johnson & Johnson, the legal professional basic’s workplace stated.
For the reason that 2000s, drugmakers, wholesalers, pharmacy chains and consultants have agreed to pay greater than $50 billion to state and native governments to settle claims that they performed a component in creating the opioid disaster.
Below the agreements, many of the cash is for use to fight the nation’s dependancy and overdose disaster.
Drug overdoses induced greater than 1 million deaths within the U.S. from 1999 via 2021, and nearly all of these concerned opioids. At first, the disaster centered on prescription painkillers that gained extra acceptance within the Nineties, and later heroin. Over the previous decade, the dying toll has reached an all-time excessive, and the largest killers have been synthetic opioids akin to fentanyl which are within the provide of many avenue medication.
Washington state’s Democratic legal professional basic sued Johnson & Johnson in 2020, alleging that it helped drive the pharmaceutical business’s growth of prescription opioids. He additionally claimed that the corporate made a definite mark on Washington’s opioid disaster by deceiving medical doctors and the general public concerning the effectiveness of opioids for continual ache and the chance of dependancy.
Johnson & Johnson stated in a written assertion Monday that Duragesic, its fentanyl patch, and its Nucynta opioid accounted for lower than 1% of opioid prescriptions within the state and the U.S., including that it has not offered prescription opioid drugs within the nation in years.
“The Company’s actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important prescription opioid medications were appropriate and responsible,” in keeping with the assertion.
The legal professional basic’s workplace famous that the corporate was one of many largest suppliers of the uncooked narcotic supplies wanted to supply opioid medication.
Funds might be awarded by the top of this fiscal yr, which signifies that the Legislature can earmark the cash throughout the present legislative session. Half of the cash will go to a state account, whereas the opposite half will go to an account for native governments, in keeping with the legal professional basic’s workplace.
Democratic Sen. June Robinson stated Wednesday that her youngsters have misplaced associates to dependancy and that she has recognized mother and father who’ve misplaced youngsters in related methods.
“The fact that these lawsuits have played out since then, they can’t unfortunately bring back the lives that we lost,” she stated. “But they are bringing resources to our communities and to our state that we are able to invest in ways that will help people recover and hopefully help to prevent future addiction and future crises like the one that we’re seeing right now.”
The deal comes about two years after the nation’s three largest opioid distributors agreed to pay the state $518 million, with the overwhelming majority being directed towards easing the dependancy epidemic.
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AP reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed.
