Baltimore has reached a $45 million settlement with CVS, ending another piece of the city’s ongoing lawsuit against major American drug companies and distributors accused of contributing to the opioid crisis. Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the settlement, which ends the city’s claims against CVS, in a news release late Friday.
So far, the city has won $90 million from opioid companies it is suing, including another $45 million Baltimore Both companies accounted for only a small share of the opioids sold in Baltimore during the height of prescribing. The other companies still in the lawsuit — Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen (now called Cencora), Teva Pharmaceuticals and Walgreens — were responsible for more than 80 percent of the opioids sent to Baltimore’s pharmacies, the city said. The lawsuit alleges that opioid manufacturers and distributors area with hundreds of millions of prescription opioids, reversing progress the city had made at reducing heroin overdose deaths and creating a far worse addiction problem.
Now facing an stemming from illicit drugs like fentanyl, the city wants opioid companies to pay more than $11 billion toward addiction treatment and other services. “These companies targeted Baltimore and decided profits were more important than the health and safety of the people of this City,” Scott said in a statement. “We are fully committed to ensuring that these companies pay their fair share to repair the damag.