Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health, McKesson and Johnson & Johnson: The Connecticut Attorney General’s Office is Fighting Back against the Addiction Epidemic

TheCVS plan is the only one of its kind that has had bigger dollar figures. Distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson this year finalized a combined settlement worth $21 billion and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson finalized a $5 billion deal.

“These agreements will be the first resolutions reached with pharmacy chains and will equip communities across the country with the much-needed tools to fight back against this epidemic and bring about tangible, positive change,” lawyers for local governments said in a statement. Billions of dollars have been paid to these companies and they’ve pledged to make improvements to their practices to help reduce addiction moving forward.

“We are pleased to resolve the longstanding claims and put them behind us, so we can move on with our business,” said Thomas Moriarty, the general counsel for the company. “We are committed to working with states, municipalities and tribes, and will continue our own important initiatives to help reduce the illegitimate use of prescription opioids.”

Safe disposal units for drugs are installed in stores and police departments, as well as educational programs to reduce the misuse of opiate drugs.

The Connecticut Attorney General’s office is holding every single player in the addiction industry responsible for the millions of lives lost or devastated by the opiate epidemic. ” The companies that helped create and fuel this crisis must change their practices, and give the resources required for treatment, prevention and recovery.”

Most of the nation’s opioid overdose deaths initially involved prescription drugs. As governments, doctors and companies took steps to make them harder to abuse and obtain, people addicted to them increasingly switched to heroin, which proved more deadly.

The Sackler family who own the company, and the maker of the medication are trying to work out a deal that would give them millions of dollars in cash and a new entity that would use the profits from the sale of the drug to fight the epidemic. That plan has been put on hold by a court.

AmerisourceBergen, the largest drug company in the country, is being sued by the DOJ for their alleged role in fueling the nation’s deadly opioid crisis.

In its complaint, DOJ officials said the company failed to report the diversion of “hundreds of thousands” of prescription opioid medications shipped to pharmacies.

According to Vanita Gupta, companies that distribute narcotics have a responsibility to report suspicious orders to law enforcement.

“AmerisourceBergen verified DEA registration and state board of pharmacy licenses before filling any orders, conducted extensive due diligence into these customers, reported every sale of every controlled substances to the DEA,” the company said.

AmerisourceBergen agreed to pay $6.1billion to resolve a wave of opioids-related lawsuits.

In all, corporations have agreed to pay more than $50 billion in settlements and penalties, money that’s expected to fund drug addiction treatment programs across the U.S.