Healey: $500M opioid settlement will hold corporations responsible

Photo | SHNS Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey

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By Sloane M. Perron

On Wednesday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced a $26-billion dollar resolution with major opioid manufacturers and distributors such as Cardinal, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Johnson & Johnson.

The agreement is the result of a 2018 lawsuit holding several corporations accountable for the flood of prescription opioids into Massachusetts with opioids, leading to widespread substance abuse and addiction.

The lawsuit against the opioid corporations is one of the first of its kind and resulted in one of the largest payments to settle a law enforcement action. According to Healey’s office, this resolution stipulates major changes in the drug manufacturing and marketing industries to prevent another opioid crisis from happening again.

Massachusetts is expected to receive more than $500 million from the resolution, which will be distributed to the state’s new Opioid Recovery and Remediation Fund. This fund will be directed to opioid treatment and prevention throughout the state.

“I promised the people of Massachusetts that the opioid crisis would be a top priority, that we would hold the bad actors accountable, and that the billion-dollar companies who got rich off the suffering in our communities would pay,” Healey said in a press release.

The agreement would resolve the claims of both states and local governments across the country, including the nearly 4,000 that have filed lawsuits in federal and state courts, according to Healey’s office. Following today’s announcement, other states will have 30 days to sign onto the current deal.