Wisconsin would receive $420 million in settlement lawmakers approved Tuesday with opioid distributors
MADISON – Wisconsin would receive $420 million over the next two decades under an agreement a panel of lawmakers approved Tuesday in a multi-state lawsuit against major distributors of opioids for their role in a national health crisis that has affected hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The settlement is part of a $26 billion deal between opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson and plaintiffs.
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The lawsuit alleged manufacturers of prescription opioids grossly misrepresented the risks of long-term use of those drugs for persons with chronic pain, and distributors failed to properly monitor suspicious orders of those prescription drugs, according to court records.
Wisconsin and 87 local governments within the state were part of the litigation, according to the leaders of the Legislature's finance committee that approved the settlement Tuesday.
"This historic agreement will provide substantial assistance to communities across Wisconsin to help fight the opioid epidemic, which has continued to ravage our state and nation," Rep. Mark Born of Beaver Dam and Sen. Howard Marklein of Spring Green said in a statement following the 13-0 vote.
"The settlement we approved today will ensure that as much funding as possible goes toward opioid abuse prevention and recovery — a critically needed support after overdose deaths increased more than 25% and hit a record high last year," the leaders said.
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Seventy percent of the funds — $420.2 million over 18 years — will flow to the 87 local governments involved in the litigation and 30% will go to the state Department of Health Services for programs aimed at fighting the opioid abuse epidemic, according to the agreement approved on Tuesday.
More than 500,000 people have died of opioid overdoses, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. States' attorneys general and local governments have filed scores of lawsuits over the prescription drugs' role in the public health crisis.
Attorney General Josh Kaul in 2019 also joined a multi-state lawsuit alleging Purdue Pharma and Richard Sackler — creators of the powerful and addictive painkiller OxyContin — peddled false information to downplay the risky side effects of using the drug to kill pain and inflated the drug's benefits.
"The opioid epidemic was not inevitable," Kaul said at the time. "This epidemic has torn families apart. It has led to the overdose deaths of thousands of Wisconsinites. It has strained our foster care services. It has strained our health care system. It has strained our criminal justice system."
Kaul said earlier this year that Wisconsin could receive more than $65 million in a settlement of that case.
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Contact Molly Beck at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @MollyBeck.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin to receive $420M in settlement with opioid distributors