Attorney General Josh Stein announces $4.5 billion settlement with opioids maker

RALEIGH, N.C. (WITN) - Attorney General Josh Stein has announced that he has reached an agreement in principle on key financial terms with opioid maker Teva.

Stein’s office says the settlement would provide up to $4.25 billion to participating states and local governments.

“Every week I meet people whose lives have been torn apart by the opioid epidemic,” Attorney General Josh Stein said.

WITN is told that Teva, an Israel-based drug manufacturer, makes Actiq and Fentora, which are branded fentanyl products for cancer pain, as well as a number of generic opioids, including oxycodone.

Stein says that while critical details of the settlement still need to be negotiated, Teva disclosed the key financial terms in its earnings announcement Wednesday. These are the following financial terms Stein’s office says the parties have agreed on:

• Teva will pay a maximum of $4.25 billion in cash over 13 years. This includes amounts Teva has already agreed to pay under settlements with individual states, funds for participating states and subdivisions, and the $240 million of cash in lieu of the product described below.
• As part of the financial term, Teva will provide up to $1.2 billion in generic naloxone (valued at Wholesale Acquisition Cost or WAC) over a 10-year period or $240 million of cash in lieu of product, at each state’s election. Naloxone is used to counteract overdoses.
• The settlement will build on the existing framework that states and subdivisions have created through other recent opioid settlements.

States have alleged that Teva promoted potent, rapid-onset fentanyl products for use by non-cancer patients, deceptively marketed opioids by downplaying the risk of addiction and overstating their benefits, including encouraging the idea that signs of addiction are actually “pseudoaddiction” treated by prescribing more opioids, and failed to comply with suspicious order monitoring requirements along with its distributor Anda.

Stein says a final settlement remains contingent on agreement on critical business practice changes and transparency requirements.

Iowa, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin are negotiating this proposed settlement framework along with North Carolina.

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