Native American tribes will get $665 million in opioid lawsuit settlement
America's three largest drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay Native American tribes ravaged by the opioid crisis up to $665 million, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Per the Post, drug distributors "McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen reached a deal to pay $515 million over six years to the federally recognized tribes while Johnson & Johnson would distribute $150 million in two years, according to court documents filed Tuesday."
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In 2019, J&J settled with two Ohio counties for $20.4 million in a deal that did not require the pharmaceutical giant to admit liability for the harm opioids caused in those counties.
A district court in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, found J&J culpable for damages related to the opioid crisis the same year. In November 2021, the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned the lower court's $456 million judgement, ruling that Judge Thad Balkman and state prosecutors had incorrectly used public nuisance laws against J&J.
According to the Post, "[n]ationwide, from 2006 to 2014, Native Americans were nearly 50 percent more likely to die of an opioid overdose than non-natives."
