Connecticut is joining a $450 million national settlement with opioid maker Endo International that would fund treatment and prevention programs, while banning the company’s marketing of opioids and forcing disclosure of millions of documents, it announced state Attorney General William Tong on Wednesday.
The settlement in principle with Endo, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, is the latest in several settlements involving Connecticut aimed at holding drug companies accountable for their role in the nation’s opioid crisis. The settlement resolves allegations that Endo boosted sales through misleading marketing that downplayed the risks of addiction and exaggerated the benefits of generic and brand-name opioids, drugs that include Percocet and Endocet as well as Opana ER, which it was withdrawn from the market in 2017.
Related to Opana ER, states including Connecticut allege Endo falsely promoted the benefits of the drug’s “abuse-deterrent formulation,” which they claim failed to prevent oral abuse and led to fatal outbreaks of hepatitis and HIV as a result of widespread abuse by people. who injected it
“Endo falsely marketed their opioids as abuse deterrents with deadly consequences. They downplayed the risks, over-promoted the benefits, and profited while people suffered and died,” Tong said in a statement. “One by one, we are confronting all the players in the addiction industry and holding them accountable for the lives they destroyed.”
The bankruptcy of Endo, an Ireland-based company with U.S. headquarters in Malvern, Pa., would facilitate the deal.
“By definitively addressing the more than $8 billion in debt that has burdened our balance sheet and establishing a path to closure on the thousands of opioid-related and other lawsuits that the company has been defending at an unsustainable cost, we will be able to moving forward as the new Endo and reaching our full potential,” Endo CEO and President Blaise Coleman said in a statement.
The deal, which is subject to final paperwork and bankruptcy court approval, would require the $450 million to be paid in cash over 10 years to participating states and “subdivisions.” In addition to permanently banning Endo from marketing opioids, it would require the company to turn over opioid-related documents for publication in an online archive and pay $2.75 million in filing fees.
Asked how much Connecticut might receive from the deal, a Tong spokesman said it was “too early to say the specific amounts for the state.”
While Connecticut does not have any lawsuits pending against Endo related to its role in the opioid crisis, it is still participating in settlement negotiations with the company.
Negotiations are being led by Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. Other participants include Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode. Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the US Virgin Islands.
Through several agreements with companies involved in the opioid epidemic, Connecticut is in line to cumulatively receive several hundred million dollars over the next few years for treatment and prevention programs to address a crisis relentless opiates. Last year, there were 1,413 opioid-related deaths in Connecticut, an 11 percent increase from 2020. according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Among other deals Connecticut has entered into, it would receive up to $95 million from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family members who own the company, about $300 million from pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen and pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson; about 7.5 million dollars from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., whose clients included Purdue; and nearly $14 million from pharmaceutical manufacturer Mallinckrodt. In addition, the state would receive amounts to be determined from drugmakers Allergan and Teva, after Tong announced last month the state’s participation in those two deals.
pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott