United States: 4 pharmaceutical companies ready to pay $ 26 billion to settle opioid-related disputes
Twenty-six billion dollars is the unprecedented amount that the Johnson & Johnson laboratory and three major drug distributors have agreed to pay to put an end to thousands of legal proceedings.
Mark RALSTON AFP / File
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Twenty-six billion dollars is the unprecedented amount that the Johnson & Johnson laboratory and three major drug distributors have agreed to pay to put an end to thousands of legal proceedings.
These companies are accused of helping to make millions of Americans dependent on opioid drugs.
They were being sued by dozens of American states, tribes and communities.
The complainants have thirty days to comment on the agreement.
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With our correspondent in Washington,
Anne Corpet
They have helped make millions of Americans dependent on opioid drugs.
Beginning in the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies showered the United States with deceptive advertisements, which presented their dangerous pills as a miracle and harmless product.
And distributors sold them without controlling the quantities sold.
The result is an epidemic of overdoses, which has killed more than 500,000 Americans in twenty years.
In the historic agreement they signed, the three drug distributors sued do not admit their guilt, but pledge to pay $ 21 billion over eighteen years, to put an end to some 4,000 proceedings against them.
The Johnson & Johnson laboratory has agreed to pay five billion dollars over nine years.
The deal will prevent labs and distributors from publicizing the processes that have made millions of Americans addicted to opiates.
The sums disbursed, if the agreement is validated by the plaintiffs, should help finance treatment centers for drug addicts.
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See also:
Opiates in the United States: $ 230 million agreement between Johnson & Johnson and New York State
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