"Allergan Settles for $200M with New York Over Opioids", 11 Dec 2021

Pharmaceutical company Allergan Finance LLC will pay $200 million to New York state and two of its counties as part of an agreement that removes it from an ongoing state lawsuit over the opioid crisis…

As part of the agreement … Allergan did not admit to any liability.

“The settlement will provide up to $200 million to address opioid-related issues, as well as reimburse attorneys’ fees and costs that specifically account for the advanced stage of this trial,” it said. “Allergan previously made the decision to voluntarily discontinue its branded prescription opioid business, which had a minimal market share of less than 1% of nationwide prescriptions.”

The agreement with Allergan means Teva Pharmaceuticals is remaining as a manufacturing defendant in a trial that has been taking place in Suffolk County in recent months…Teva and the regional drug distribution company Anda are also defendants in a county lawsuit.

In September, the state reached an agreement with another company that had been named in the suit, Endo International. Other settlements had been reached earlier in the trial process and before it began.

The lawsuit is one of thousands filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, school districts and others seeking to hold companies in the drug industry accountable for the opioid crisis, which has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. in the last two decades.

Some of the biggest players in the industry, including the distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson and drugmakers Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma have reached nationwide settlements with a cumulative value potentially well over $30 billion, with most of the money being directed to fight the epidemic.

But most of those deals have not been finalized.