Baltimore will receive more than $266 million after a jury ruled on Tuesday that two massive opioid distributors were liable for their role in the city's opioid epidemic.
After an eight-week trial, the jury ruled that McKesson and Cencora, formerly called AmerisourceBergen, will owe the city $192 million and $74 million, respectively, The Baltimore Banner reported. When combined with five previous settlements with various distributors and manufacturers, the city is slated to receive nearly $670 million.
"The opioid overdose epidemic has taken a toll on every community in this country, but in Baltimore, it has touched every resident in some way and devastated whole families and whole neighborhoods," Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. "Today, a jury agreed that the outsized impact on our city was a direct result of the actions of big pharma. I am grateful to the jury for their careful deliberation, which has validated our claim against these bad actors, and sent a message that indifference for the lives of our residents will not be tolerated."
The companies, which were accused of recklessly flooding the city with millions of opioids and contributing to a widespread addiction and overdose crisis, will likely appeal the verdict, The Banner reported.
The city will now head back to trial in December to determine whether the companies will also pay additional money for opioid abatement. It's seeking as much as $11 billion in that trial, which will also be overseen by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill.
As a result, the public may have to wait until next year for any meaningful dialogue about the overdose crisis, as local officials have declined to comment on drug-related matters most of this year, citing the ongoing litigation.
“We know that the work on these cases is not over, as we prepare for additional abatement proceedings in December," Scott said. "But today’s verdict brings us one step closer to addressing the harm inflicted on our community, honoring the lives of the loved ones we lost, and seeking justice and healing for our residents who have endured heartbreak throughout this epidemic.“
Baltimore has so far dedicated $107 million in settlement funds to local opioid remediation programs, as stipulated by the agreements. All remaining funds will be disbursed through a new governance structure that Scott unveiled in September.
As the city is poised to receive an unprecedented amount of money for harm reduction efforts, experts are also cautiously optimistic about the trajectory of the city's overdose crisis.
Baltimore saw 566 fatal overdose deaths as of September, according to preliminary data from the Maryland Department of Health. While a myriad of preventable deaths remain, the number puts the city on track to possibly end the year with fewer than 800 deaths.
The last time the city saw less than 800 deaths was in 2017.
In total, the crisis has killed more than 8,000 Baltimore residents in the past decade, and the city's death rate remains the highest in the nation, coming in at 144.4 deaths per 100,000 people, based on 2020 U.S. Census data.
That quadruples Maryland's average while dwarfing the death rates of other counties.
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