Baltimore has reached an $80 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals over its role in the opioid epidemic, marking the fourth multi-million dollar settlement with opioid distributors and manufacturers this year.
Mayor Brandon Scott announced the deal Monday morning, less than two weeks after he signed a comprehensive executive order creating a governance structure to guide how the city will spend money from opioid settlements. The city will receive the entire $80 million by mid-2025, bringing the total settlement earnings to $322.5 million, according to the news release.
“This settlement marks another major victory for the City of Baltimore and further validates our decision to carry on in the fight to hold these companies accountable,” Scott said in a statement. “Nothing can undo the harm that they caused or bring back the lives lost, but we are determined to implement these resources in a way that helps move our City’s fight against this epidemic forward. It is my hope that these funds will help save lives and ensure that fewer families and communities have to endure the pain of losing loved ones to opioid overdose.”
Teva will make an initial payment of $35 million by the end of the year and pay the remainder by July of next year.
Under the agreement, the city will allocate $5 million for education and outreach efforts about the 988 system, $3 million to Penn North Recovery Center and $2 million to Bmore POWER, according to the news release.
The settlement with Teva comes after the city opted out of a $238 million state settlement with Walmart, Walgreens, Teva and Allergan in February. Had Baltimore tagged onto the settlement, it would have only received $11 million over 13 years, officials said.
The deal with Teva is the fourth opioid-related settlement this year as the beleaguered city works to combat the overdose crisis, with deals also being made with Allergan, CVS and Cardinal Health.
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 has declined to divulge other legal costs.
“The extraordinary amount of work put into this case by our outside counsel and our internal Law Department team has paid off for the City,” City Solicitor Ebony Thompson said in a statement. “We are very thankful that Susman Godfrey's willingness to assume the financial risk in this case allowed us to turn down the grossly inadequate national settlements and pursue the resources our City needs to address this epidemic.”
The Teva settlement was part of a larger lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers that goes to trial on Sept. 16. The remaining defendants are Johnson & Johnson; McKesson; Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen; and Walgreens.
Except for the funds allocated from the Teva deal and an additional $62 million from previous settlements, the remaining dollars will be disbursed through the city's new governance structure, which Scott unveiled less than two weeks ago.
The executive order, signed two days before International Overdose Awareness Day, laid out the governance structure in seven phases:
- Establish an opioid restitution fund and outline appropriate uses, which include programs and services that work toward substance abuse prevention; treatment; recovery; and harm reduction.
- Use the funds to establish a trust that will be spent over the period of at least 15 years.
- Create "key documentation" to ensure spending is aligned with the interests of the community, including a comprehensive overdose prevention strategy and substance use community needs assessment, which must be updated at least biannually.
- Hire an executive director of overdose response, who reports to the mayor and coordinates with city agencies to lead the city's response to the crisis.
- Hire an opioid restitution program manager, who reports to the executive director, manages projects and serves as a liaison to the Mayor's Office of Recovery Programs.
- Establish an opioid restitution advisory board, which guides the city's use of settlement funds.
- Have the Mayor's Office of Recovery Programs coordinate and publish notices of funding opportunities. The office will also publish annual financial reports.
As the city looks to take full advantage of the windfall of funds to combat the overdose crisis, recent data shows the number of fatal overdoses has risen in Baltimore despite a nationwide decline.
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 146.1 deaths per 100,000 people in the 12-month period ending in July, more than quadrupling the statewide average and dwarfing the death rates of other counties.
That same data, though, may also show some hope as the city tries to keep drug users alive.
The 12-month total of 856 deaths, for example, is a significant decrease from previous periods, when the numbers often exceeded 1,000.
In addition, with 434 overdose deaths so far this year in Baltimore, the city is on track to have fewer than 900 deaths by the end of 2024 — 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.
Baltimore has reached an $80 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals over its role in the opioid epidemic, marking the fourth multi-million dollar settlement with opioid distributors and manufacturers this year.
Mayor Brandon Scott announced the deal Monday morning, less than two weeks after he signed a comprehensive executive order creating a governance structure to guide how the city will spend money from opioid settlements. The city will receive the entire $80 million by mid-2025, bringing the total settlement earnings to $322.5 million, according to the news release.
“This settlement marks another major victory for the City of Baltimore and further validates our decision to carry on in the fight to hold these companies accountable,” Scott said in a statement. “Nothing can undo the harm that they caused or bring back the lives lost, but we are determined to implement these resources in a way that helps move our City’s fight against this epidemic forward. It is my hope that these funds will help save lives and ensure that fewer families and communities have to endure the pain of losing loved ones to opioid overdose.”
Teva will make an initial payment of $35 million by the end of the year and pay the remainder by July of next year.
Under the agreement, the city will allocate $5 million for education and outreach efforts about the 988 system, $3 million to Penn North Recovery Center and $2 million to Bmore POWER, according to the news release.
The settlement with Teva comes after the city opted out of a $238 million state settlement with Walmart, Walgreens, Teva and Allergan in February. Had Baltimore tagged onto the settlement, it would have only received $11 million over 13 years, officials said.
The deal with Teva is the fourth opioid-related settlement this year as the beleaguered city works to combat the overdose crisis, with deals also being made with Allergan, CVS and Cardinal Health.
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 has declined to divulge other legal costs.
“The extraordinary amount of work put into this case by our outside counsel and our internal Law Department team has paid off for the City,” City Solicitor Ebony Thompson said in a statement. “We are very thankful that Susman Godfrey's willingness to assume the financial risk in this case allowed us to turn down the grossly inadequate national settlements and pursue the resources our City needs to address this epidemic.”
The Teva settlement was part of a larger lawsuit against opioid distributors and manufacturers that goes to trial on Sept. 16. The remaining defendants are Johnson & Johnson; McKesson; Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen; and Walgreens.
Except for the funds allocated from the Teva deal and an additional $62 million from previous settlements, the remaining dollars will be disbursed through the city's new governance structure, which Scott unveiled less than two weeks ago.
The executive order, signed two days before International Overdose Awareness Day, laid out the governance structure in seven phases:
As the city looks to take full advantage of the windfall of funds to combat the overdose crisis, recent data shows the number of fatal overdoses has risen in Baltimore despite a nationwide decline.
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 146.1 deaths per 100,000 people in the 12-month period ending in July, more than quadrupling the statewide average and dwarfing the death rates of other counties.
That same data, though, may also show some hope as the city tries to keep drug users alive.
The 12-month total of 856 deaths, for example, is a significant decrease from previous periods, when the numbers often exceeded 1,000.
In addition, with 434 overdose deaths so far this year in Baltimore, the city is on track to have fewer than 900 deaths by the end of 2024 — 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.
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