Illinois could get nearly $800 million under major opioid settlement

Johnson & Johnson and three opioid distributors are paying a total of $26 billion to settle thousands of government lawsuits accusing them of mishandling painkillers.

Drug maker Johnson & Johnson and three opioid distributors have agreed to pay $26 billion to settle thousands of government lawsuits blaming them for helping create a public-health crisis tied to their mishandling of the painkillers.

The deal—years in the making—calls for McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. to pay almost $21 billion to resolve allegations they turned a blind eye to suspiciously large opioid shipments, the companies and state attorneys general said Wednesday. J&J will pay $5 billion to settle claims it illegally marketed opioid medicines, which it stopped making last year.

The settlement marks a major step forward in litigation over the highly addictive drugs, which have been blamed on more than 500,000 deaths over two decades. States, cities and counties filed more than 3,000 suits against drug makers, distributors and pharmacies seeking compensation for billions spent battling the U.S. opioid epidemic.

The state of Illinois will be signing on to the settlement, Attorney General Kwame Raoul said  in a statement today. If the agreement is finalized and there is full participation by all local governments, Illinois will get approximately $790 million, the statement says. The substantial majority of the money is to be spent on opioid treatment and prevention. 

“The time has come to resolve the cases against companies that contributed to and fueled the opioid epidemic, and we must ensure that resources are distributed in communities hit hardest,” Raoul said in the statement.

The companies said the comprehensive agreement will resolve a substantial portion of their liability from state and local lawsuits.

“This settlement will directly support state and local efforts to make meaningful progress in addressing the opioid crisis in the United States,” Michael Ullmann, J&J’s general counsel, said in an emailed statement.

AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health said their share of the total will be $6.4 billion each, while McKesson’s share would be $7.9 billion. In a statement, they said the payments will be made over 18 years.

While the distributors said in a joint statement they “strongly dispute the allegations made in these lawsuits,” the proposed deal and process for settlements “are important steps toward achieving broad resolution of governmental opioid claims and delivering meaningful relief to communities across the United States. The companies remain deeply concerned about the impact the opioid epidemic is having on individuals, families, and communities across the nation and are committed to being part of the solution.”

Reporter Stephanie Goldberg contributed