McKesson Says Potential Opioid Settlement Proposal Raised to Up to $21 Billion
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:
McKesson says potential opioid settlement proposal raised to up to $21 billion:
McKesson, along with AmerisourceBergen ABC.N and Cardinal Health CAH.N, had proposed in October last year paying a combined $18 billion to resolve the 3,000-plus lawsuits, with the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N paying $4 billion.
[...] The lawsuits were largely filed by states, counties and cities and sought to hold the companies responsible for an opioid addiction epidemic that according to U.S. government data resulted in 450,000 overdose deaths from 1997 to 2018.
That proposal, part of a settlement framework negotiated with four state attorneys general, met resistance from lawyers for local governments and several states, leading to further talks. J&J on Oct. 13 said it would now contribute $5 billion.
McKesson in a quarterly report said that under the new $21 billion settlement framework proposed by attorneys general, the San Francisco-based company would pay about $8 billion over 18 years.
The three distributors would also be required to make changes to their programs to guard against the diversion of drugs for illicit purposes, McKesson said.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.