Baltimore City has reached a $152.5 million settlement with Cardinal Health over its role in the opioid epidemic, making it the largest deal to date with a pharmaceutical company.
Mayor Brandon Scott's office announced the settlement in a Friday news release. It came just a week after the city announced a $45 million settlement with CVS, and it's the third successful lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers amid the city's overdose crisis. Officials expect to receive the full amount by the end of the year.
“We have said from the beginning that we are committed to do the right thing, not the popular thing or the easy thing — and these settlements are proof that our decision to reject the global settlements and carry on this fight was the right one,” Scott said in a statement.
The city will use all of the funds for opioid remediation purposes, according to the news release, and it has earmarked millions for local addiction treatment facilities and other organizations.
It has pledged $5 million for Tuerk House; $5 million for Helping Up Mission; $3 million for Baltimore Safe Haven; $3 million for HOPE Safe Haven; $2 million for More Than a Shop; $1 million for Marian House; and $1 million for Turnaround Tuesday.
It's unclear how much of the settlement will go to the city's legal fees. When the city settled with the pharmaceutical giant Allergan earlier this year, nearly half — $20 million in total — was used to pay lawyers representing the city.
The city is now slated to receive $242.5 million in settlements this year, with Cardinal Health being a part of a larger lawsuit totaling more than $11 billion.
That lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 16 despite attempts to have it thrown out, as reported by The Baltimore Sun, includes Johnson & Johnson; McKesson; Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen; Teva Pharmaceuticals; and Walgreens.
The city would have received less than $70 million if it had joined a statewide settlement with some of those companies in 2021, according to the news release.
“We have built an overwhelming case against the opioid companies, and we will continue to move litigation forward to trial against any defendant that is unwilling to recognize their own role in driving this crisis and the significant resources this City needs to combat the consequences of their decisions,” said Baltimore City Solicitor Ebony Thompson in a statement.
Friday's announcement came just days after a report by the Maryland Office of Overdose Response showed the city has made more headway in developing remediation programs than almost any other jurisdiction in the state, yet it continues to have the highest fatal overdose rate in the nation.
Of the 118 programs looked at by the agency, 116 were at least in the developmental stages as of the second quarter of this year in Baltimore, according to the report. Only Howard County showed more progress.
However, when looking at the degree to which programs have actually been implemented, Baltimore fell behind.
While 91% of programs had been at least partially implemented in the city, well above the statewide average of 73%, it had the third-lowest percentage of substantially implemented programs, coming in at 28%.
Meanwhile, the city's announcements touting opioid-related settlements have provided some of the only public comments from the mayor's administration about the deadly overdose crisis in recent months.
Top officials have remained largely silent about the fentanyl-driven crisis and have canceled public hearings scheduled by city council members, citing a need to protect sensitive information related to ongoing litigation.
The settlements come as overdose deaths in Maryland dipped in 2023 as a part of a nationwide decline for the first time in five years — but Baltimore's annual death toll continued to climb.
The state saw 2,513 deaths in 2023, a 2.5% decrease from the year prior, but Baltimore had 1,045 deaths, an increase of 5.7%, according to the Maryland Department of Health.
The most recent data shows that Baltimore had a death rate of 149.4 deaths per 100,000 people in the 12-month period ending in June, which more than quadrupled the statewide average and dwarfed the death rates of other counties.
That same data, though, may also show some hope as Baltimore works to further develop programs to help those who use drugs.
The 12-month total of 896 deaths, for example, is a significant decrease from previous periods, when the numbers often exceeded 1,000 deaths.
In addition, with 360 overdose deaths in Baltimore in the first half of 2024, the city is on track to have fewer than 900 deaths by the end of the year – a number that would mark a notable drop but would require the death rate to remain steady, despite an expected increase in fatalities during the winter months.
Comments