Teva Pharmaceutical and its affiliates have come to combined $23.3-billion agreements to resolve pending opioid litigation in two Ohio counties and an agreement in principle to settle remaining litigation in other states. The agreement includes $23 billion in anti-addiction medicine donations over 10 years, an additional $25 million in anti-addiction medicine donations over three years, and $270 million in cash payments.

The settlement with Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in Ohio resolves the claims of those counties and removes Teva from Track 1 opioid litigation. Under the agreement, the company will provide the two counties with Suboxone (buprenorphine naloxone) sublingual tablets, an opioid-treatment medication, valued at $25 million (wholesale acquisition cost), to be distributed over three years and will make a cash payment of $20 million, to be paid over three years.

In addition, Teva confirms that it has an agreement in principle with a group of attorneys general from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas, as well as certain defendants, for a global settlement framework. The framework is designed to provide a mechanism by which the company attempts to seek resolution of remaining potential and pending opioid claims by both the states and political subdivisions. Under that agreement, Teva would donate buprenorphine naloxone (sublingual tablets) in quantities up to the amount needed to meet the majority of the currently estimated US patient need over the next 10 years, valued at approximately $23 billion (at wholesale acquisition cost), and make a cash payment of up to $250 million over 10 years.

Separately, three pharmaceutical distributors, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, have agreed to a combined $215-million cash settlement with Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in Ohio in the first track of the multi-district opioid litigation. With this settlement agreed upon, the companies said that they and the other parties will continue the work toward a global resolution.

Source: Teva Pharmaceuticals, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson, Ilene Shapiro, Summit, Ohio County Executive