Teva to pay New York $500M for role in opioid crisis

ALBANY, N.Y. — Teva Pharmaceuticals will pay New York up to $523 million to resolve claims against the company for its role in the opioid crisis.

Attorney General Tish James on Thursday announced the latest settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., its American subsidiary Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and its affiliates. It comes nearly one year after a Suffolk County jury found the drugmaker liable for helping to fuel opioid addictions and overdose deaths in New York.

The agreement concludes the attorney general’s litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors. It raises the total amount the AG’s office has secured as part of that effort to more than $2 billion.

“I made a promise to put an end to the havoc wreaked by opioid manufacturers in New York and across the nation and to hold them accountable for the consequences,” James said in a statement. “This is a landmark day in our battle against the opioid crisis.”

A Teva spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the agreement.

New York will receive more than $313 million as part of Thursday’s Teva New York Agreement, according to the AG’s office. It comes in addition to the $210 million New York is set to receive over 13 years as part of a $4 billion nationwide Teva Global Settlement announced this summer.

Under the agreement, funds will be paid out over an 18-year period. It commits Teva to injunctive relief that includes a ban on high-dose opioids and prescription savings programs, restrictions on political lobbying and disclosure of opioid product clinical data, among other things. James’ office noted that it has also secured injunctive relief from Teva’s distributor, Anda, Inc.

The settlement will resolve Nassau and Suffolk counties’ lawsuits against Teva, if approved by their county legislatures. The AG’s office said it planned to make a motion to remove the drug company from the litigation, concluding the state’s opioid trial.

It also resolves administrative charges of insurance fraud that the state Department of Financial Services brought against Teva, James’ office noted.

The Suffolk County jury’s late-December verdict against Teva capped a monthslong trial in a landmark lawsuit brought against major drug manufacturers and distributors.

Teva — the sole remaining defendant in the case — and its affiliates were found liable for public nuisance charges made by the state and two counties (Nassau and Suffolk) hit hard by the opioid epidemic. A subsequent trial was set to determine how much Teva and others would be required to pay the state.

James’ office previously announced an agreement of up to $200 million with Allergan, and similar agreements with other defendants — including Endo Health Solutions and McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation — named in the March 2019 lawsuit.

The state’s new Opioid Settlement Fund Advisory Board will oversee how dollars from those settlements will be distributed in New York. The panel released its first annual report and recommendations for disbursement this week.

Ann-Marie Foster, president and CEO of Phoenix Houses of NY/LI, argued Thursday that those funds “must be immediately deployed — or the crisis will only continue to get worse.”

“We need these funds to actually get in the hands of treatment providers and other Substance Use Disorder programs,” she said in a statement. “We are fighting on the frontlines of this exploding crisis, and treatment facilities like Phoenix House have not yet seen a single dollar.”