There are four major drug companies in the U.S. currently under the microscope. These companies are being blamed for causing the opioid crisis in this country. Cardinal Health, McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen, and Teva Pharmaceuticals are the four that have been under investigation. Rather than going through a long trial that would look bad on TV, they decided to settle.
The settlement came at around 1 AM Monday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster said he was happy with the way the situation was resolved. “The parties were always free to reach a resolution, and I’m glad they did,” said Polster.
Over the past two decades, it’s estimated that nearly 400,000 people have died in connection to opioids. Even legal prescriptions are to blame. Apparently, these companies are responsible for using tactics to push drugs on people, even while knowing about their addictive properties. As a result, this lawsuit was filed to try and reap damages. 2,600 lawsuits have been filed during this time and now a settlement has been reached.
The Drug Epidemic
Many people who abuse drugs never intended to do so. It starts out with being prescribed opiates for a variety of reasons. Many of those are legitimate prescriptions to help patients deal with pain. The problem is, these types of medications are addicting. People start taking a drug and are rarely monitored. One pill turns into two, which turns into three. Their tolerance begins to wane and they need more. Suddenly, they’re taking enough to overdose on.
Many different lawsuits have been filed on behalf of the families who lost loved ones due to this epidemic. It appears as if the settlement will be around $50 billion to recover the damages in these areas. The families want justice and the federal government is looking to fight the opioid crisis. They need money and resources to do so.
“This is not your typical tort product liability case. It’s really about an epidemic,” Carl Tobias, a professor in the law school at the University of Richmond, said. “There are so many different motivations among so many different players, it’s virtually impossible to know what would be good.”
“The distributors’ role is to help ensure that medicines prescribed by licensed doctors are delivered to licensed pharmacies, so they are available for patients who need them, when they need them, where they need them,” the three large distributors said in a joint statement issued after settlement negotiations hit an impasse on Friday. “We have to balance our mission to deliver medicines to pharmacies and hospitals when and where they need them against our important efforts to prevent and detect illegal diversion of those drugs.”
