There are new developments in the sprawling opioid litigation as efforts continue to bring thousands of cases against the industry to a close. In New York, the pharmaceutical manufacturer Allergan agreed to pay $200 million to settle its case just before closing arguments in a months-long trial. This follows multimillion-dollar settlements with other defendants on trial—Johnson & Johnson and pharmacy chain CVS—before and during the trial. Earlier this year, three of the nation's largest drug distributors settled for more than $1 billion as part of an overarching $26 billion nationwide deal to end more than 3,000 lawsuits filed by states, municipalities, and tribes that accused companies up and down the opioid supply chain of fueling a drug crisis that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans in the last decade.
Meanwhile, another proposed settlement—this one between states and influential opioid maker Purdue Pharma and its founding Sackler family—is still undecided. A final deal hinges on a decision by a federal judge concerning the roughly $10 billion in dividends distributed to the family before Purdue filed for bankruptcy, which triggered the settlement proposal for the drugmaker’s role in the opioid epidemic. Some states say the Sacklers took too much from the company, thereby watering down the $4.5 billion offered to settle the lawsuit, in exchange for broad legal protection against opioid-related lawsuits. Some states involved in prosecuting Purdue and the Sacklers oppose the settlement because it ends their ability to bring civil complaints seeking more money from the family. Settlement money would go toward compensating victims' families as well as for drug prevention, abatement, and treatment programs, at a time when drug overdoses fatalities are soaring across the country.
And finally, as opioid litigation talks drag on, people are dying—with a huge increase in overdose deaths among Black Americans. The rate of opioid overdose deaths for Blacks rose 38 percent from 2018 to 2019, according to a study of hard-hit communities in four states. During this time, there was no change in the number of overdoses among other racial groups. Another study found that Black and white patients have been prescribed opioids at similar rates since the early 2000s. The opioid epidemic first hit the white population in regions such as Appalachia but has now spread more widely across the country.