Entire Opioid Industry—Manufacturers, Distributors & Pharmacies—Facing Legal Scrutiny Over Roles in Opioid Epidemic

“US opioid crisis settlements have totaled over $50 billion.”^[1]

This first chart compares proposed settlements (by opioid manufacturers) to each company’s share of the prescription opioid market between 2006-2012, as reported by the Washington Post.^[2] Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family have proposed the largest opioid settlement despite accounting for less than 4% of the market. The second chart shows additional settlements proposed by opioid distributors and pharmacies. 

Blame For Opioid Crisis Has Been Primarily – & Inaccurately – Placed on Purdue 

“Mallinckrodt may not be a household name like Purdue Pharma, which patented and marketed OxyContin, but it produced nearly 30 times more pills than Purdue in 2006, according to DEA data obtained by The Washington Post.”

Darren Foster (Director of ‘American Pain’), February 4, 2023^[3]

“One company tends to shoulder most of the blame: Purdue Pharma, which created OxyContin. But as Purdue and its founders, the Sackler family, were dragged to court and exposed in news articles and TV adaptations, another lesser-known company with roots in Delaware quietly rose to the top of the market.”

(about Endo Pharmaceuticals), February 1, 2023^[4]

“While the Sackler family, which owned Purdue, attracted intense national attention and became a cynosure of criticism after the company’s introduction of its blockbuster pill OxyContin, the Mallinckrodt brand slipped under the radar.”

May 10, 2022^[5]

“Though much lesser-known, Teva, an Israeli company, and its affiliates produced far more prescription opioids during the peak years of the crisis than marquee-name opioid manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson did. Its production of both generic and branded painkillers dwarfed the output of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, the medication most immediately associated with setting off an avalanche of overdoses and deaths.”

july 26, 2022^[6]

“Much attention has been paid to the role of pharmaceutical manufacturers like Purdue in causing the opioid epidemic. But the archive’s documents are showing the public with great detail that drug makers did not create this tragedy by themselves.”

G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-founding director of its Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness, October 14, 2022^[7]

In Reality, Entire Opioid Industry Faces Legal Scrutiny

Washington state reaches $149.5 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson over opioid crisis

“Since the 2000s, drugmakers, wholesalers, pharmacy chains and consultants have agreed to pay more than $50 billion to state and local governments to settle claims that they played a part in creating the opioid crisis.”

January 24, 2024^[8]

Nevada secures $285M opioid settlement with Walgreens, bringing total settlements to $1 billion

“The last in a series of multiyear settlements with pharmaceutical companies, retailers and others, it pushes Nevada’s total anticipated payments stemming from opioid claims to $1.1 billion, state Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office said in a news release. Nevada is among numerous states that have reached settlements now totaling more than $50 billion nationwide.”

July 4, 2023^[9]

New Mexico Inks $500M Opioid Deal With Walgreens

“Attorneys for New Mexico announced on Friday morning that the state had reached a $500 million settlement with Walgreens over the opioid crisis ahead of a bench verdict, the largest deal obtained by the attorney general in the state’s history.”

June 9, 2023^[10]

Pharmaceutical Giants Set $19 Billion Opioid Settlement as States Debate How to Spend It

“Most states agreed to the deal to settle agreements with manufacturers Teva and Allergan as well as pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens. The agreement is in addition to a $26 billion so-called global settlement with drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. The latest settlements close lawsuits against most of the major players and brings the total income from opioid litigation that states will have to spend to about $50 billion.”

June 9, 2023^[11]

Teva to pay Nevada $193 million over role in opioid epidemic

“Nevada was one of two states, along with New Mexico, that did not join a $4.35 billion nationwide settlement with the Israel-based drugmaker last year. New Mexico has also since settled.”

June 7, 2023^[12]

Endo Secures Backing of Unsecured Creditors, Opioid Plaintiffs for Chapter 11 Exit

“Endo International PLC reached a settlement with its unsecured and opioid-related creditors to lock in support for a chapter 11 restructuring that would turn the drugmaker’s business over to top lenders and increase the amount it pays to resolve mass lawsuits alleging its products fueled opioid addiction.”

March 3, 2023^[13]

Justice Dept. Sues AmerisourceBergen Over Role in Opioid Crisis

“Investigators said the pharmaceutical manufacturer, one of the nation’s largest, had knowingly distributed opioids that were later resold illegally.”

december 29, 2022^[14]

CVS, Walmart, Walgreens agree to pay $13.8 bln to settle U.S. opioid claims”

“CVS said Wednesday it had agreed to pay about $5 billion over 10 years, and Walgreens disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it had agreed to pay about $5.7 billion over 15 years. Neither company admitted wrongdoing. Walmart has agreed to pay $3.1 billion, mostly up front, according to two people familiar with the matter.”

november 2, 2022^[15]

CVS, Walgreens and Walmart Must Pay $650.5 Million in Ohio Opioids Case

“A federal judge ordered the big pharmacy chains to bear partial responsibility for the deadly drug crisis.”

August 17, 2022^[16]

Endo International Files for Bankruptcy to Weather Opioid Lawsuits

“The drugmaker has faced thousands of lawsuits—including hundreds from state and local governments—over the marketing and sale of its painkiller Opana ER, which it discontinued in 2017 at the request of the Food and Drug Administration.”

August 17, 2022^[17]

J&J, distributors finalize $26B landmark opioid settlement

“Taken together, the settlements are the largest to date among the many opioid-related cases that have been playing out across the country.”

August 17, 2022^[18]

Native American tribes reach landmark opioid deal with Johnson & Johnson, drug distributors for up to $665 million

“The tribes claim they were saturated by highly addictive painkillers manufactured by J&J and shipped by the distributors without regard for the clear signs of abuse and death”

February 1, 2022^[19]

Teva Pharmaceuticals found to be responsible for its role in the opioid epidemic in New York state

“A New York jury ruled Thursday in a landmark trial that Teva Pharmaceuticals contributed to decades of opioid addiction and deaths in New York state.”

december 30, 2021^[20]

The Great Ohio Opioid Stick-Up

“Thousands of local governments and plaintiff attorneys are seeking to extort companies in the drug supply chain by holding them liable for the nation’s opioid epidemic. Now armed with a jury verdict, a federal judge is holding Walgreens, Walmart and CVS hostage to a settlement.”

november 23, 2021^[21]

Endo’s Attys In ‘Career-Wrecking’ Peril As Opioid Woes Grow

“Endo has already abandoned ship in two cases riven by discovery discord, shelling out $85 million collectively for settlements in recent months. And with probes proliferating elsewhere, the company has begun firing flares of financial distress.”

september 17, 2021^[22]

Major Trial Against Opioid Suppliers Begins in New York

“A large chunk of the opioid industry will take the stand over the course of the trial, including manufacturers of generic versions of drugs, like Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Allergan Inc., as well as massive suppliers of the pills such as Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp.”

June 29, 2021^[23]

Drugmakers Accused of Causing Opioid Addiction in Trial

“J&J, Teva, Endo and AbbVie Inc.’s Allergan say they acted legally.”

April 19, 2021^[24]

Allergan, Teva Accused Of Hiding ‘Critical’ Opioid Info

“’… Allergan and Teva withheld this highly relevant evidence which clearly shows the extent of their liability for the opioid crisis,’ [said] Hunter Shkolnik of Napoli Shkolnik PLLC… Without the report, Allergan was able to make false and misleading statements, such as that the system was already compliant…”

September 1, 2020^[25]

Walmart Hid That It Was Under Criminal Investigation for Its Opioid Sales, Lawyers Say

“Walmart, a defendant in the massive lawsuit brought by states and municipalities around the country that accuses a broad range of companies of lax controls over opioid sales, failed to reveal that it had been under criminal investigation for similar conduct….”

April 13, 2020^[26]