Minnesota Government Agrees On A $300M Opioid Settlement

Minnesota Government Agrees On A $300M Opioid Settlement

Introduction

Minnesota has reached a $300 million opioid settlement against Johnson & Johnson and the three major U.S. drug distributors over the companies' role in the nation's opioid addiction crisis.

The decision came as the state and local governments were required to reach an agreement before January 2, 2022, to get the maximum amount from the national settlement. Attorney General Keith Ellison prepared a detailed draft about the distribution of the state's share from the $26 billion national settlement.

As per the agreement,  75% of the settlement funds will be allotted to the municipal governments, while the state will get 25%. The state and local governments will receive the amount of $296 million over the next 18 years.

The drug distributors involved in the settlement agreement are Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen along with manufacturer Johnson & Johnson (J&J). The agreement is just one of the several facades in ongoing nationwide litigation against opioid marketers, drug makers and wholesalers across the United States.

The settlement is a result of investigations from state attorneys general across the U.S. concerned about J&J misleading the doctors and patients about the opioid's addictive nature. It also investigates if the distributors failed to detect and deliver dubious drug orders.

According to the data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2019, 14,000 people died of opioid overdoses, which is 38 people per day of the year. As per the lawsuit filed against Purdue Pharma and OxyContin, millions of Americans became addicted, and hundreds of thousands died because of opioid painkiller overdoses between 1999 and 2015.