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02/25/2022
Attorney General Tong Announces Drug Distributors and Johnson & Johnson Finalize $26 Billion Opioid Agreement
(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong announced today the final approval of the $26 billion opioid agreement with the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors – Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen – and Johnson & Johnson. Following successful state sign-on and subdivision sign-on periods, the defendants will start releasing funds to a national administrator on April 2, 2022. Money will start flowing to state and local governments in the second quarter of 2022.“Today is a major milestone in our ongoing fight to hold the addiction industry accountable for the death and devastation of the opioid epidemic. Cardinal, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Johnson & Johnson reaped billions in profits from the pain and suffering of Connecticut families. This settlement—the second largest in U.S. history—brings billions of dollars back into our communities to begin to heal the devastation of the opioid epidemic,” said Attorney General Tong.
The agreement marks the culmination of three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims of state and local governments across the country. It is the second largest multistate agreement in U.S. history, second only to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. State negotiations were led by Attorneys General Josh Stein (NC) and Herbert Slatery (TN) and the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Fifty-two states and territories have signed on to the agreement as well as thousands of local governments across the country. In Connecticut, all municipalities have joined. Maximum local government support should ensure Connecticut receives its full allocation of approximately $300 million.
Attorney General Tong and Governor Ned Lamont have urged the Connecticut General Assembly to approve legislation to ensure Connecticut’s funding is dedicated toward evidence based strategies to fight the opioid epidemic.
In addition to the funds, Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen will:
• Establish a centralized independent clearinghouse to provide all three distributors and state regulators with aggregated data and analytics about where drugs are going and how often, eliminating blind spots in the current systems used by distributors.
• Use data-driven systems to detect suspicious opioid orders from customer pharmacies.
• Terminate customer pharmacies’ ability to receive shipments, and report those companies to state regulators, when they show certain signs of diversion.
• Prohibit shipping of and report suspicious opioid orders.
• Prohibit sales staff from influencing decisions related to identifying suspicious opioid orders.
• Require senior corporate officials to engage in regular oversight of anti-diversion efforts.
Johnson & Johnson is required to:
• Stop selling opioids.
• Not fund or provide grants to third parties for promoting opioids.
• Not lobby on activities related to opioids.
• Share clinical trial data under the Yale University Open Data Access Project.
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Media Contact:
Elizabeth Benton
elizabeth.benton@ct.gov
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