Texas could get $276 million from opioid settlement with CVS Pharmacy

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Texas has joined a multibillion-dollar, multistate opioid settlement with CVS Pharmacy — the newest growth in quite a few lawsuits relating to the roles of producers, distributors and consultants within the opioid disaster.

Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton introduced Wednesday that the state is signing on to a $5 billion settlement with the retail large, which was accused of inadequately monitoring opioid prescriptions. If different state, municipal and tribal governments settle for, Texas may obtain greater than $276 million.

Paxton’s assertion doesn’t point out how this cash could be spent.

“Thousands and thousands of People have died or are sick because of the opioid epidemic. Whereas vital work stays, a broad coalition of states reached sure phrases with CVS, and we’re hopeful that we will attain a remaining settlement on all phrases,” he mentioned in a press launch.

CVS mentioned in a press launch that this isn’t an admission of wrongdoing and that it will proceed preventing any claims not resolved by this tentative settlement.

“We’re dedicated to working with states, municipalities and tribes, and can proceed our personal vital initiatives to assist scale back the illegitimate use of prescription opioids,” Thomas Moriarty, CVS Well being’s chief coverage officer and common counsel, mentioned within the press launch.

Texas has been part of a number of nationwide opioid settlements since 2020 with main pharmaceutical producers and distributors together with Mallinckrodt, Allergan, Endo, Johnson & Johnson, Teva, Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, in addition to consulting large McKinsey & Co. These offers have introduced Texas billions of {dollars}.

Apart from CVS, Bloomberg Information reported that retail giants like Walgreens and Walmart have additionally reached proposed opioid settlements price round $5 billion and $3 billion, respectively.

On the bottom, the opioid disaster has continued to ravage communities throughout the nation since former President Donald Trump declared it a nationwide emergency in 2017. Particularly, the nationwide variety of overdose deaths rose to a document excessive of 107,000 in 2021.

The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention estimates that over 4,800 Texans died from overdoses between April 2021 and April 2022 — a greater than 60% leap in deaths over the previous three years. And this determine is more likely to be an enormous undercount as a result of most counties within the state don’t commonly carry out toxicology assessments as a result of monetary constraints.

Over the previous few months, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has additionally put a highlight on the difficulty — notably round fentanyl, an artificial opioid that’s now driving many of the overdoses within the U.S.

Abbott, who has lengthy favored border safety and policing over hurt discount as options to the disaster, ordered the Texas Division of Public Security to ramp up its efforts to fight drug cartels, saying they’re smuggling excessive volumes of fentanyl into the state. He equally requested different state companies to stipulate how they might step up their responses to the disaster forward of the 2023 legislative session.

However in October, he additionally mentioned the state ought to finance the distribution of Narcan, months after the state’s federally funded program to ship a confirmed drug that reverses opioid overdoses ran out of cash as a result of excessive demand.

“We’ll must search for the areas the place fentanyl is discovered most predominantly and ensure Narcan is definitely out there there,” Abbott mentioned at a press convention.

Disclosure: CVS Pharmacy has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no position within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full checklist of them right here.