AUSTIN—Texas continues its fight against opioid abuse securing a $63 million statewide settlement against Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday.
The settlement requires Endo to pay into the Texas State Qualified Settlement Fund—which will disperse funding accordingly—without a requirement of a global settlement first, a news release said.
“This settlement is the result of my office aggressively working to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for their deceptive marketing of highly-addictive pain pills, which spurred an epidemic and left victims and families with unimaginable consequences,” Paxton said in the release.
This is yet another major win for Paxton who has also secured a $290 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson in October. In July, he announced a $26 billion multi-state opioid settlement with drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, as well as drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. From it, the state is expected to receive at least $1.2 billion.
Lawsuits filed across the county have accused distributors and manufacturers of using deceptive marketing tactics, downplaying addictive properties and carelessly overlooking the alarming numbers of pills ordered by pharmacies across the country over the last two decades.
The Endo agreement includes “no admission of wrongdoing, fault or liability of any kind by Endo or its subsidiaries,” according to an Endo news release on the matter.
It also resolves two cases that were set to go to trial in 2022: County of Dallas v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al. and County of Bexar v. Purdue Pharma, L.P., et al.
“The settlement, which is subject to certain conditions and contingencies, provides a framework through which Endo and its subsidiaries can fully and finally resolve the opioid-related claims of Texas,” the release said.
Of the funding, 70% will go toward the Texas Opioid Abatement Fund through the Texas Opioid Council, tasked with ensuring opioid settlement money is allocated fairly and spent to remediate the opioid crisis, according to its website.
Another 15% will go to the state attorney’s office, and the last 15% will go to local governing entities like counties, cities and special districts.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 70,000 people died of an overdose in the U.S. in 2019—more than four times the 1999 total. Of those, more than two-thirds of these deaths involved an opioid.
In Texas, more than 3,000 deaths in 2019 were linked to drug overdose, resulting in 10.8 drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people, according to age-adjusted data.
“This settlement is a necessary step in the right direction, and we will continue to fight to heal our state from this devastating crisis,” Paxton said.
The Texas Tribune contributed to this report.
