Walgreens will pay Baltimore $45 million by the end of the year in the city’s latest settlement with opioid distributors.
The company will pay the remainder of the roughly $80 million settlement reached last month by the end of 2025, the city said in a news release.
The city has won more than $400 million from drug companies in lawsuits that allege opioid manufacturers and distributors marketed addictive painkillers and ignored warnings to send unusually large orders of drugs to Baltimore pharmacies. More than half a billion legal opioids flooded the Baltimore area between 2006 and 2019.
The city said it will spend the entire settlement for opioid remediation, including $15 million to establish 24/7 comprehensive outreach services and $10 million for a comprehensive overdose response program.
The remainder of the money will be managed in accordance with Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott’s August 2024 executive order which directed $20 million to the city’s health department, according to the release. The executive order established a city opioid restitution fund with the goal of sustaining the effect of the settlement funds for 15 years. The order also created two new positions in the mayor’s office dedicated to opioid response, and the city said it plans to host town hall meetings about how to spend the money.
The City’s settlement with Walgreens is one of six against distributors and manufacturers, following settlements with Allergan and CVS for $45 million each, Teva for $80 million and Cardinal Health for $152.5 million. The terms of a settlement with Johnson & Johnson have not yet been released.
A jury trial against the two remaining defendants — McKesson and AmerisourceBergen — began last month and is ongoing in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. In opening statements a city attorney said the two drug distribution companies controlled 60% of the prescription opioid market in the Baltimore area for more than a decade.
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