One day after announcing the fourth multi-million dollar settlement with an opioid manufacturer or distributor this year, Baltimore has reached yet another deal.
Mayor Brandon Scott's office on Tuesday announced an $80 million settlement with Walgreens over its role in the opioid epidemic. While the terms of the deal won't be divulged until Oct. 3 under the agreement, officials said it brought the total earnings from opioid-related settlements to $402.5 million.
“As part of the settlement, Walgreens requested that we delay announcing the specific terms of the agreement for 30 days,” City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson said in a statement. “In order to resolve the case against it and focus our trial on the worst actors in the opioid epidemic, we agreed to this term.”
The announcement came just a day after the city announced another $80 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals, and it marks the fifth opioid-related settlement this year as the city struggles to combat the overdose crisis.
The Walgreens 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 and Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen.
“We are proud of our efforts to bring these companies to justice over the past several years,” Scott said in a statement. “The reality is, addressing the opioid epidemic requires an enormous amount of resources and through this litigation, our outside counsel and Law Department have begun to provide that. As we approach the beginning of trial, it is time to finish the job against the remaining defendants and begin using this money to support and grow the work we’ve already been doing to tackle the opioid epidemic where it can do the most good.”
It's unclear how much of the Walgreens settlement will go to the city's legal fees. It's also unknown how officials will allocate the funds.
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. While officials have said one-third of the winnings from other settlements will go to the city's lawyers, they have declined to offer specific numbers.
Any allocations from the settlement won't be known until the deal's terms are unveiled next month.
However, the city has already earmarked $72 million from previous settlements to fund local harm reduction initiatives and related programs. Anything not stipulated by the agreements will be disbursed through a new governance structure that Scott unveiled earlier this month.
The executive order creating the structure, 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.
One day after announcing the fourth multi-million dollar settlement with an opioid manufacturer or distributor this year, Baltimore has reached yet another deal.
Mayor Brandon Scott's office on Tuesday announced an $80 million settlement with Walgreens over its role in the opioid epidemic. While the terms of the deal won't be divulged until Oct. 3 under the agreement, officials said it brought the total earnings from opioid-related settlements to $402.5 million.
“As part of the settlement, Walgreens requested that we delay announcing the specific terms of the agreement for 30 days,” City Solicitor Ebony M. Thompson said in a statement. “In order to resolve the case against it and focus our trial on the worst actors in the opioid epidemic, we agreed to this term.”
The announcement came just a day after the city announced another $80 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals, and it marks the fifth opioid-related settlement this year as the city struggles to combat the overdose crisis.
The Walgreens 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 and Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen.
“We are proud of our efforts to bring these companies to justice over the past several years,” Scott said in a statement. “The reality is, addressing the opioid epidemic requires an enormous amount of resources and through this litigation, our outside counsel and Law Department have begun to provide that. As we approach the beginning of trial, it is time to finish the job against the remaining defendants and begin using this money to support and grow the work we’ve already been doing to tackle the opioid epidemic where it can do the most good.”
It's unclear how much of the Walgreens settlement will go to the city's legal fees. It's also unknown how officials will allocate the funds.
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. While officials have said one-third of the winnings from other settlements will go to the city's lawyers, they have declined to offer specific numbers.
Any allocations from the settlement won't be known until the deal's terms are unveiled next month.
However, the city has already earmarked $72 million from previous settlements to fund local harm reduction initiatives and related programs. Anything not stipulated by the agreements will be disbursed through a new governance structure that Scott unveiled earlier this month.
The executive order creating the structure, 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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