A group of pharmaceutical companies and distributors agreed to pay US$590 million to settle lawsuits connected to opioid addiction among Native American tribe members, according to a US court filing released on Tuesday.
The agreement is the latest amid a deluge of litigation spawned by the US opioid crisis, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives over the past 20 years and ensnared some of the largest firms in the world of US medicine.
Pharmaceutical firms McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Drug Co and Cardinal Health Inc had already struck a separate deal with the Cherokee tribe in September last year for US$75 million.
According to documents filed in an Ohio federal court on Tuesday by a committee of plaintiffs, the companies agreed to pay another US$440 million over seven years to other Native American tribes. The pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson, for its part, agreed to pay US$150 million over two years to all the tribes, of which US$18 million are destined for the Cherokee.
Native Americans have “suffered some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic of any population in the United States,” including the highest per capita rate of opioid overdoses compared with other racial groups, according to the filing from the Plaintiffs’ Tribal Leadership Committee.
“The burden of paying these increased costs has diverted scarce funds from other needs and has imposed severe financial burdens on the tribal plaintiffs,” it said.
Johnson & Johnson, McKesson and the other two companies in the accord — AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health — previously agreed to a US$26 billion global settlement on opioid cases.
J&J said on Tuesday the US$150 million it agreed to pay in the Native American case has been deducted from what it owes in the global settlement.
“This settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing and the company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve,” the company said.
It was unclear if the other companies would take their portion under the latest agreement from the global settlement.
Robins Kaplan, a law firm negotiating on the behalf of the plaintiffs, said the agreement must still be approved by the Native American tribes.
“This initial settlement for tribes in the national opioid litigation is a crucial first step in delivering some measure of justice to the tribes and reservation communities across the United States that have been ground zero for the opioid epidemic,” Tara Sutton, an attorney at the firm, said in a statement.
Douglas Yankton, chairman of the North Dakota-based Spirit Lake Nation, said the money from the settlement would “help fund crucial, on-reservation, culturally appropriate opioid treatment services.”
Steven Skikos, an attorney representing the tribes, said the group is pursuing claims against other drugmakers.
“This is hopefully the first two of many other settlements,” he said.
Every tribe recognized by the US government, 574 in all, will be able to participate in the agreement, even if they have not filed lawsuits.
Many of the lawsuits regarding the opioid crisis have centered on Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, a highly addictive prescription painkiller blamed for causing a spike in addiction.
A judge in December overturned the company’s bankruptcy plan because it provided some immunity for the owners of the company in exchange for a US$4.5 billion payout to victims of the opioid crisis.
The litigation wave has also swamped pharmacies owned by Walmart Inc, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp, which a jury found in November bear responsibility for the opioid crisis in two counties in Ohio.
Semiconductor stocks on Friday took a beating after a grim profit warning from Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc sparked fresh worries about the US’ earnings power as the country is potentially heading for a recession. Despite a broader stock market rally, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index dropped 3.8 percent after Micron, the largest maker of memory semiconductors in the US, flagged that demand was cooling for chips used in computers and smartphones. The index — which is home to US chip giants Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Nvidia Corp, as well as Micron — is down 38 percent this year. Historically, semiconductor
WHOLLY OWNED SUBSIDIARY: Costco Wholesale said it expected the purchase of the remaining 45 percent stake to add 1 to 1.5 percent to its earnings per share US-based Costco Wholesale Corp on Thursday said that it had purchased the remaining 45 percent stake in Costco President Taiwan Inc (台灣好市多) for US$1.05 billion, making the local company a fully-owned unit. “We estimate that the purchase would add about 1 to 1.5 percent to [our] earnings per share,” Costco said in a statement. Costco President Taiwan was established as a joint venture with Kaohsiung-based President Group (大統集團), which held a 45 percent stake. Since the first Costco store opened in Kaohsiung in 1997, 14 outlets have been set up in Taiwan, company data showed. PROFITABLE Three Costco stores in Taiwan — in Taipei’s Neihu
MOBILITY SOLUTIONS: Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its ecosystem through the platform, the Taiwanese firm said India’s Tata Technologies Ltd has become the latest member of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) MIH Open Platform to jointly develop sustainable mobility solutions for customers worldwide, the Taiwanese company said yesterday. It might include embedded and electrical, electric platform development and battery management system solutions, among others, Hon Hai said. Tata Technologies’ participation marks more progress in Hon Hai’s efforts to expand its electric-vehicle (EV) ecosystem through the MIH platform, it said. The open platform has about 2,380 members around the world, with an aim to jointly develop EV ecosystems and shrink the time to market for products. Hon Hai made the
SOARING PROFITS: Semiconductors and shipping have knocked automaking and construction out of the 10 highest paying industries, stock exchange data showed Mobile phone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) posted an average of NT$5.15 million (US$173,249) in annual compensation for non-managerial employees last year, marking the highest among all firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE), exchange data showed. That is a 66 percent increase from the company’s average compensation of NT$3.08 million in 2020, as its earnings per share (EPS) expanded from NT$26.01 in 2020 to NT$70.56 last year. That is also three times higher than the average compensation of NT$1.7 million in the nation’s semiconductor industry, the data showed. The increases helped MediaTek advance its ranking from third in 2020, replacing
RSS