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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 22 OcTOber 2019
$260 million deal averts 1st federal trial on opioid crisis

Continued from Front

The agreement was struck
in the middle of the night,
just hours before a jury that
was selected last week was
scheduled to hear opening
arguments in federal court
in Cleveland.
Drug distributors Ameri-
sourceBergen, Cardinal
Health and McKesson will
pay a combined $215 mil-
lion, said Hunter Shkolnik,
a lawyer for Cuyahoga
County. Israeli-based drug-
maker Teva will contribute
$20 million in cash and $25
million worth of generic
Suboxone, a drug used to
treat opioid addiction.
"People can't lose sight of
the fact that the counties
got a very good deal for
themselves, but we also
set an important national
benchmark for the others,"
Shkolnik said.
The deal contains no ad- Attorney Joe Rice speaks outside the U.S. Federal courthouse, Monday, Oct. 21, 2019, in Cleveland.
mission of wrongdoing by Associated Press
the defendants. deal buys them time to try es the amount of money ment should help provide a blind eye toward suspi-
Across the U.S., the phar- to work out a nationwide the companies have avail- services for people who are ciously large shipments of
maceutical industry still settlement of all claims. able to pay other plaintiffs. struggling. the drugs. The industry has
faces more than 2,600 oth- It could also turn up the The barrage of lawsuits Bornstein said his son, Tyler, denied wrongdoing.
er lawsuits over the deadly pressure to work out such a was brought against drug became hooked on opio- Industry CEOs and attor-
disaster. Participants in deal, because every partial manufacturers, suppliers ids as a teenager after re- neys general from four
those cases said the Ohio settlement reached reduc- and sellers by state and lo- ceiving a prescription fol- states met Friday in Cleve-
cal governments, Native lowing surgery on his arm. land, where the offer on
American tribes, hospitals He died of a heroin over- the table was a deal worth
and others. For nearly two dose five years later, in potentially $48 billion in
years, a federal judge in 2014. cash and addiction-treat-
Ohio has been pushing the Ohio in 2017 had the sec- ment drugs to settle cases
parties toward one big set- ond-highest death rate nationally.
tlement. from drug overdoses in the Those attorney generals re-
The only defendant left U.S., behind only West Vir- iterated Monday that they
in the trial that had been ginia. have worked out a "frame-
scheduled for Monday is In a statement, the three work" for a settlement. They
the drugstore chain Wal- major distributors said the said they hope other states
greens. The new plan is for settlement money should and local governments
Walgreens and other phar- be used on such things sign on.
macies to go to trial within as treatment, rehab and But the reception wasn't
six months. mental health services. promising. Ohio Attorney
The settlement enables The settlement also means General Dave Yost called
both sides to avoid the risks that the evidence pre- the idea "a pile of lumber,"
and uncertainties involved pared for the trial won't be not a framework. And Paul
in a trial: The counties imme- fully aired. Hanly, one of the lead law-
diately lock in money they Lawyers for the counties yers for the local govern-
can use to deal with the were preparing to show ments, said the companies
crisis, and the drug compa- the jury a 1900 first edition should be forced to pay
nies avoid a possible find- of "The Wonderful Wizard more.
ing of wrongdoing and a of Oz," featuring the poppy OxyContin maker Purdue
huge jury verdict."There's fields that put Dorothy to Pharma, often cast as the
no amount of money that's sleep, and a 3,000-year- biggest villain in the crisis,
going to change the dev- old Sumerian poppy jug reached a tentative settle-
astation and destruction to show that the world has ment last month that could
that they've done to fami- long known the dangers of be worth up to $12 billion.
lies not only all across our opioids. But half the states and hun-
county but all across the Those suing the industry dreds of local governments
country," said Travis Born- have accused it of aggres- oppose it. It remains to be
stein, who was preparing sively marketing opioids seen whether the settle-
to testify in the Cleveland while downplaying the risks ment will receive the ap-
trial. But he said the settle- of addiction and turning provals it needs.q