By Dietrich Knauth
(Reuters) – Rhode Island’s attorney general on Monday announced settlements he valued at $107 million against the drugmakers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and AbbVie’s Allergan unit to resolve claims over their roles in fueling an opioid epidemic in the state.
Attorney General Peter Neronha said the settlements include $28.5 million in cash, plus the delivery to Rhode Island of anti-overdose treatments – 1 million Naloxone sprays and 67,000 bottles of Suboxone pills – over 10 years.
“While no amount of money will ever be enough to undo the harm suffered by Rhode Islanders throughout the ongoing opioid epidemic, these additional recoveries will further support public health efforts to respond to the challenges,” Neronha said.
Israel-based Teva called its settlement “a critical step forward in getting life-saving treatments to the people who need them.” It said it is still “actively” negotiating a national settlement over its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic.
AbbVie, which acquired Allergan in 2020, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The settlement was reached just as Rhode Island was prepared to take Teva to trial. Jury selection began last week, and opening arguments were set to begin on Monday.
The Rhode Island lawsuit is one of more than 3,300 filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments across the country accusing drugmakers of minimizing the addictiion risks of opioid pain medications.
More than 500,000 people have died due to opioid overdoses in the past two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Teva recently reached a $225 million opioid settlement with the state of Texas, and has attempted to negotiate a nationwide settlement of its opioid liability.
Teva Chief Executive Kare Schultz told Reuters the company will likely end up paying $2.7 billion to $3.6 billion to resolve opioid claims.
Other defendants in the Rhode Island case settled before trial, including the largest U.S. drug distributors McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc, which joined a nationwide $21 billion settlement.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Dietrich Knauth in New York, and Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)
