Virginia receives first $67 million from Johnson & Johnson opioid settlement

Virginia simply obtained its first cost as a part of a settlement with the pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson. The preliminary cost is a part of roughly $99 million that Virginia will obtain over 9 years from the corporate.

The preliminary cost of $67.4 million — from opioid producer Janssen Prescribed drugs, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson — contains about $11 million for the state, $16 million for localities, and nearly $40 million of the cost shall be directed to the Opioid Abatement Authority.

“I’m thrilled that the cash from these record-breaking settlements is on its means,” Lawyer Basic Jason Miyares mentioned in an announcement.

“My client safety part labored tirelessly to make sure that Virginians obtained essentially the most funding potential and obtained it as rapidly as potential,” he mentioned. “This helps the Commonwealth and particular person localities combat again towards the opioid epidemic and scale back, stop, and deal with dependancy.”

The settlement additionally requires Johnson & Johnson to cease promoting opioids within the U.S., prevents it from selling them or from funding third events that promote opioids, and it prevents the corporate from lobbying on laws or regulation associated to opioids.

In response to first-quarter knowledge from the Virginia Division of Well being, 46 localities in Virginia are on observe to have extra opioid-related deaths than final 12 months. Richmond is on tempo for 300 opioid deaths, and Henrico County might see its second 12 months in a row with greater than 100. Roanoke additionally tasks greater than 100 deaths.

The opioid disaster can largely be traced to Appalachian areas of states, together with Virginia, the place a fellow opioid-producing firm, Purdue Pharma, marketed OxyContin within the Nineteen Nineties — resulting in widespread opioid dependancy. It reached a $6 billion settlement with a number of states earlier this 12 months.

Creator Beth Macy, who was a reporter at The Roanoke Occasions for 25 years, chronicled the roots of opioid points in “Dopesick: Sellers, Docs, and the Drug Firm that Addicted America.” The New York Occasions-bestselling guide was lately tailored right into a sequence on Hulu.

The Johnson & Johnson settlement is the most recent in a sequence Virginia has been concerned in with opioid producers or distributors. The state beforehand obtained funds from Cardinal Well being, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen totaling about $108.3 million to date.

Extra lately, Miyares introduced that Virginia is anticipating to obtain funds from opioid producer Endo Worldwide PLC.