HARRISBURG (TNS) — The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office has a but few more weeks to persuade as many local governments as possible to accept a settlement that could quickly deliver up to $232 million toward addressing damage from opioids.
Attorneys general across the United States reached a settlement in July to resolve thousands of lawsuits. All told, Pennsylvania would get a total of more than $1 billion over 18 years, with an initial installment of up to $232 million arriving as early as next year.
But the amount Pennsylvania will ultimately receive depends on how many counties and municipalities sign on by a Jan. 2 deadline. The fewer that sign-on, the smaller the total for Pennsylvania, according to officials in the state attorney general’s office.
In signing on, local governments give up their rights to sue opioid manufacturers and distributors on their own. Some Pennsylvania entities, most notably Philadelphia and Allegheny County, have objected to the settlement, saying it’s small compared to the cost of damage from opioids, and they would do better with their own lawsuits.
Attorney general’s office officials say the settlement is substantial and creates the opportunity to quickly provide local money toward addressing harms from opioids. It would be devoted to things such as opioid treatment and overdose reversal drugs and emergency care to save people who have overdosed.
They say individual lawsuits and appeals could take many years, with no guarantee of success. They also say years of fighting lawsuits could drive opioid firms into bankruptcy, reducing the amount they end up paying.
A proposed Pennsylvania distribution plan would put 15% of the funds under state control, give 70% to counties, and give another 15% to entities which believe they sustained the most harm, and which filed or planned to file lawsuits.
The 70% for the counties would be further divided up according to factors such as number of overdose deaths and frequency of using naloxone to reverse overdoses. Each of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties would receive at least $1 million.
About 6.6%, or $70 million of the total settlement, would go to legal fees.
Officials say that, unlike the tobacco settlement of decades ago, which wound up funding things not directly related to preventing tobacco addiction, the vast majority of opioid settlement funds would go to things like treatment and prevention.
The settlement involves Johnson & Johnson, an opioid manufacturer, and opioid distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen.
Officials say it includes safeguards to help prevent a repeat of the opioid addiction crisis. That includes greater transparency into huge shipments which should have raised red flags they were feeding addiction rather than legitimate pain control.
The settlement doesn’t include Perdue Pharma, the drugmaker considered most responsible for the crisis, and which has declared bankruptcy.
Experts say the opioid addiction crisis was largely driven by prescription opioid painkillers such as OxyContin, often sold illegally. Many people who became addicted to the pills switched to cheaper heroin brought on the street.
Overdose deaths declined for several years in Pennsylvania, but increased by about 16% in 2020, when the state had nearly 5,200 fatal overdoses.
Officials say about 70 government entities across the state support the settlement agreement, with many county commissioners set to decide within the next two weeks.
