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By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A court-appointed panel on Friday really helpful divvy up a pool of $2.13 billion in authorized charges from nationwide drug trade settlements over the U.S. opioid disaster, with high corporations set to obtain a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars}.
The panel gave nationwide agency Motley Rice the biggest share, with 18.6% of the funds, or $396 million. Different corporations with massive shares embrace New York-based Simmons Hanly Conroy, with 11.4%, or $244 million; California-based Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, with 8.2%, or $174 million; and California-based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, with 5.65%, or $120 million.
The $2.13 billion charge pool comes out of settlements totaling greater than $46 billion that drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies have reached to resolve lawsuit by native and Native American tribal governments accusing them of fueling an epidemic of opioid dependancy.
The cash was put aside as a so-called frequent profit fund, to compensate regulation corporations for work they did that benefited the entire plaintiffs within the litigation.
U.S. District Choose Dan Polster, who has overseen the sprawling opioid litigation since 2017, additionally dominated Friday that corporations have till June 21 to attraction the panel’s suggestions earlier than they develop into closing.
The charges stem from settlements with drugmakers Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:), AbbVie (NYSE:) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:); distributors Cencora, McKesson (NYSE:) and Cardinal Well being (NYSE:); and pharmacies CVS, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:) and Walmart (NYSE:).
They don’t embrace a settlement of as much as $6 billion with bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, which is funded by that firm’s Sackler household homeowners in alternate for a protect from future lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court docket is at the moment weighing whether or not that settlement is authorized.
Opioid settlements, together with each the nationwide offers and separate agreements negotiated by particular person states, now complete nicely over $50 billion. Nonetheless, many state and native governments have but to develop detailed plans for a way they are going to spend the cash to treatment the harms brought on by opioids.
Greater than 800,000 individuals died of opioid overdoses from 1999 by way of 2023, in response to information from the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Plaintiffs within the lawsuits say that drugmakers downplayed the medication’ dangers, and distributors and pharmacies ignored pink flags that they have been being diverted into unlawful channels.
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