Maryland To Receive $400 Million Settlement From Opioid Distributors

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland will receive $400 million over the next 18 years through a settlement agreement with opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson over the role it has played in perpetuating drug addictions and overdose deaths in the state, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced on Friday.

Opioid distributors McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health also took part in the settlement discussion and will pay for fueling the opioid epidemic. Maryland and 58 of its 60 qualifying subdivisions elected to participate in the settlement agreement.

The settlement was negotiated by state attorney generals and is expected to yield up to $26 billion nationwide. It relied on an "unprecedented degree of cooperation" between state governments, local governments, public officials, public servants, and their attorneys, according to a state official.

A judge found Johnson & Johnson guilty of fueling the opioid epidemic in 2019. That year, an Oklahoma district court ordered Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Jannsen Pharmaceuticals to pay $572 million in damages.

The court ruled the company's opioid marketing was deceptive, false and misleading when it claimed the drug was non-addicting.

"They knew drugs were addictive," Frosh said. "They sold them claiming they were not addictive, and they sold way more than they should have sold, knowing the dangerous properties these drugs carried."

In Maryland, on average more than six residents die from opioid overdoses each day.

Frosh initially projected that Maryland would receive as much as $485 million from a settlement agreement that included Johnson & Johnson. He and other attorneys launched the legal battle in 2021

At the time, Maryland and other states were investigating allegations that the companies participated in several illegal promotional activities that helped create the opioid crisis while distributing more drugs than warranted for legitimate medical purposes.

Frosh's office has worked with hundreds of officials at the state and local level during settlement negotiations, the state official said.

"We know that the epidemic that we face with respect to opioids is growing in strength and we need to use this money to stop it," Frosh told WJZ in July 2021.

Maryland and its subdivisions can use the settlement money to remediate the addiction and devastation experienced by families across the state as a result of the opioid crisis, Frosh said.

The first distribution of proceeds is expected in April.