Tennessee and several other states will receive extensive funds due to a settlement with Teva, an opioid manufacturer based in Israel.
According to a release from Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, the drug maker will pay $4.25 billion to state and local governments.
“This settlement is another major step in holding opioid manufacturers accountable and we expect these funds to make a significant difference in treating opioid addiction disorder in Tennessee and across the country,” said Slatery. “One problem we encountered with Teva (as we have with other manufacturers) is the advice it gave when opioids were losing their effectiveness for clearly addicted patients – just up the dosage. I don’t have enough adjectives to describe how poor that advice was.”
Overall, the specifics of the agreement are still being negotiated. However, according to the attorney general’s office, the framework will tentatively relate to other settlements with opioid producers:
- Teva will pay a maximum of $4.25 billion in cash over 13 years. This figure 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 product described below.
- As part of the financial terms, 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.
In addition to the Teva settlement, Slatery has been involved in other legal actions against opioid manufacturers, as a growing addiction crisis grips the nation.
Tennessee will take in roughly $600 million over 18 years to help combat the opioid crisis due to an agreement with three distributors, Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, along with Johnson & Johnson.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Teva” by Teva.
