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 damage they’ve done to our neighborhoods and families.
” CVS distributed hydrocodone and other opioids to its own Baltimore pharmacies between 2006 and 2014. The city’s lawsuit is especially significant because Baltimore declined to participate in a with opioid companies that the state of Maryland and most local jurisdictions joined two years ago. City officials decided to hold out in hopes of winning more money for opioid abatement.
The statewide settlement did not include CVS. That global settlement also will pay out over 18 years, while Baltimore’s settlements are being paid this year, the city said. The city said it has committed $5 million from the CVS settlement for the “Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion” program, $5 million for Healing City Baltimore, $1 million for the grief support center Roberta’s House, and $1 million for the reentry program From Prison Cells to PhD.
A large portion of the CVS settlement likely will go to the city’s outside law firm Susman Godfrey, who took the case on contingency, fronting all expenses associated with the lawsuit, including expert fees and countless depositions over the course of six years. Outside counsel in the Allergan settlement received roughly $20 million. The city also announced that Sara Whaley, the program manager of the Bloomberg Opioid Prevention Initiative and a faculty member at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will serve in an advisory role on the city’s use of opioid settlement funds.
The opioid companies still being sued are seeking to have Baltimore’s lawsuit thrown out. Baltimore City Circuit Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill and is weighing the companies’ motions. He is expected to rule next week.
The drug companies argue that the city has not provided enough evidence to show they are responsible for the harms of the opioid crisis. The city claims the companies knowingly ignored the risks associated with their painkillers when they marketed the pills to doctors and sent huge orders of opioids into the city. If the lawsuit proceeds, a trial is set to begin Sept.
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