Washington could get $16 million in a recent round of settlements in lawsuits against opioid pill manufacturers over their role in worsening the opioid crisis, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office announced on Thursday.
Settlements with eight drug makers will bring in $720 million total nationwide. Of that, about $16 million is likely coming to Washington, depending on how many counties and cities join the settlement. Half of that will go to the state government and half to local governments to be used for opioid-abuse treatment and prevention efforts.
These funds are in addition to the $1.3 billion Washington has already received in opioid settlements over the past three years.
The eight companies involved in the settlements are Mylan, Hikma, Amneal, Apotex, Indivior, Sun, Alvogen and Zydus. The largest payer is Mylan, which is now part of Viatris, which will pay more than $284 million over the next nine years to the states involved in the settlement.
As part of the settlement, all the companies except Indivior agreed to stop promoting or marketing opioids nationwide. They must also limit the amount of oxycodone in each pill they sell to less than 40 milligrams and monitor and report suspicious orders, according to the Attorney General’s office.
Indivior cannot manufacture or sell opioid products over the next 10 years, but it can still market and sell medications to treat opioid-use disorder, according to the Attorney General’s office.
Of the $1.3 billion in settlement funds Washington’s received, state and local governments have set aside funds for things like treatment programs, increasing access to medications like naloxone, improving education in school or tribal settings and expanding crisis centers.