$114M Settlement For Rhode Island Over Opioid Crisis

Introduction

A settlement of more than $114 million has been reached between Rhode Island and opioid manufacturer and distributors over the opioid crisis in the state.

State Attorney General Peter Neronha announced that opioid manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will pay $21.1 million and opioid distributors, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson will pay $90.8 million of the settlement amount. The settlement amount will be used to fight the opioid crisis and help opioid-addicted people.

The AG even stated that all these companies prioritized profits by overseeing the drawbacks of addictive opioids. The current settlement is separate from the nationwide $26 billion opioid settlement where most of the U.S. states have joined for a coordinated result.

Rhode Island will get the settlement amount within the next few weeks, and the second payment is expected in July. It also ensures that the state will get the money irrelevant to the final approval of the global opioid settlement.

The state will put an advisory board to decide how to use 80% of the settlement amount as 20% will be directly distributed to cities and towns to fight the opioid crisis.

The U.S. has witnessed hundreds of thousands of opioid overdose deaths and the drug distributors, along with J&J, face more than 3,300 lawsuits in federal courts across the nation.

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