Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Judge OKs Oklahoma's $85M Settlement With Teva That Includes Agreement Not To Promote Opioids In State
A judge in Oklahoma signed off on the state's $85 million settlement with Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceuticals on Monday following a squabble between the attorney general, Legislature and governor over how the deal was structured. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman signed the agreement calling for the funds to be used to help abate the state's opioid crisis. (6/24)
After receiving the assurances before a brief court hearing Monday, Oklahoma state judge Thad Balkman approved the $85 million settlement between the state and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries. Private attorneys hired by the state to work on the case will receive 15 percent of the total, plus reimbursement for their expenses. “The resources and terms of the agreement will help abate the ongoing crisis the state is facing,” state Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a statement released after the hearing. (Bernstein, 6/24)
Under the approved plan, Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman said, the $85 million must be sent within three days to the law firm that has been helping the state build its case against opioid drugmakers. The firm of Whitten Burrage in Oklahoma City is to withdraw its legal fees before wiring the remainder of the money, within 24 hours, to the Opioid Lawsuit Settlement Fund within the state treasury to abate the opioid crisis, Balkman said. The settlement stipulates that the attorneys are entitled to 15% of the settlement: just under $13 million in this case. (Drash, 6/24)
The Oklahoma trial, which is ongoing, is seen as a sort of litmus test for plaintiffs in some 1,600 cases against Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers that are being consolidated and transferred before a judge in the Northern District of Ohio. Oklahoma prosecutors claim the companies’ actions created an oversupply of painkillers and a public nuisance that will cost $12.7 billion to $17.5 billion to remedy. (Lovelace, 6/24)
In other news on the opioid epidemic —
New York resident Mickey Saxbury worked on a General Motors assembly line for 25 years before sharp, throbbing back pain from an on-the-job injury forced him to retire. A back operation failed. A device to block his pain gradually became ineffective. The only thing that’s consistently worked, he says, is pain medication. But a judge overseeing his New York State Workers Compensation Board disability case ordered that his opioids be sharply reduced. (Alltucker and O'Donnell, 6/24)
The billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma LP must face a New York lawsuit claiming they triggered the U.S. opioid epidemic, a judge ruled, handing an early victory to states and local governments seeking to recoup billions of dollars in social costs from the drugs. A state judge on Friday denied the Sacklers’ request to dismiss the lawsuit, filed by 58 counties and two dozen cities in New York. The ruling, in Suffolk County on Long Island, is the first by any court denying a motion by the Sacklers to throw out a suit by a state or county and allowing for pretrial fact-finding to proceed against the individual defendants and their trusts, said Paul Napoli, an attorney representing the New York governments. (Dolmetsch, 6/24)
Duval County has the highest per capita heroin and fentanyl related death rate of any county in Florida, but an opioid program is curbing the epidemic by coordinating service for patients. (Adan, 6/24)
