US States Agree Multi-Million Dollar Deal with Companies over Opioid Crisis

New York, June 9 (.).- Several states in the United States announced this Friday the final approval of an agreement reached by the pharmaceutical companies Teva and Allergan (NYSE:) with the pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens (NASDAQ:) for their role in the opioid crisis and for which they will pay a total of 17,300 million dollars (16,082 million euros) in compensation.

The companies will start giving funds to a national administrator this summer, and state and local governments participating in the compact are expected to start receiving money by the end of this year.

This was explained in different statements by the attorneys general of various states, who had sued the companies and reached judicial agreements with them, agreements that have now been ratified by all parties.

New York Attorney General Letitia James stressed that this “historic agreement” holds companies accountable for their “role in this public health crisis” and said that the funds that the state will receive will be used to finance programs against opioids. , treatment and education.

“One by one we are taking on every player in the addiction industry and recovering billions of dollars across the country to save lives and fight the opioid epidemic,” said his Connecticut counterpart, William Tong.

In addition to the significant economic compensation, the agreements also include certain requirements for the companies and say, for example, that Allergan will not be able to sell opioids for ten years or that Teva will have to operate under supervision and avoid all marketing of these products.

CVS and Walgreens, meanwhile, have agreed that pharmacies will have to monitor suspicious activity with opioid prescriptions and report them to authorities.

This agreement is in addition to others that cities and states in the country have been closing against other companies involved in the opioid problem after thousands of lawsuits against them.

According to authorities, between 1999 and 2019 nearly half a million people died in the United States from opioid overdoses.