J&J reaches opioid settlement with holdout state New Mexico

Johnson & Johnson recently said it had agreed to pay $44 million to resolve claims that it fuelled the opioid epidemic in New Mexico, a state which originally opted against participating in a nationwide settlement resolving thousands of similar cases.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based drugmaker said the $44 million was consistent with the terms of a proposal for J&J and drug distributors McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc to pay up to $26 billion to resolve the cases nationally.

Hector Balderas, Attorney General, New Mexico, initially declined to take part in those settlements but last month said his state would participate in the distributors’ $21 billion deal. He did not join J&J’s $5 billion deal at that time.

Under the accord, J&J agreed to pay New Mexico its share of the nationwide settlement in 2022, rather than over several years, if all of the state’s local governments signed on by 31st May.

“Opioids have destroyed families in New Mexico, and local communities and addiction professionals still need vital funding to save lives and fight this ongoing tragic epidemic,” Balderas said in a statement.

J&J did not admit wrongdoing and in a statement said it appropriately marketed its pain medications.

More than 3,300 lawsuits, largely by state and local governments, are pending, seeking to hold those and other companies responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths.

How much of the $26 billion the companies ultimately must pay and how much outstanding litigation they will face depends on state and local government participation.