Minnesota, other states reach tentative $4.25 billion settlement with major opioid manufacturer

Attorney General Keith Ellison says he's reviewing a proposed national opioid settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals that would bring tens of millions of dollars to Minnesota.

The framework of a $4.25 billion multistate settlement was announced Tuesday with Parsippany, N.J.-based Teva, the U.S. affiliate of the Tel Aviv company. In the past couple of years, Ellison has reached opioid settlements with six pharmaceutical companies, most recently manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and three distributors.

"There's no amount of money that can make up for the death and destruction that these companies caused by putting their profits before people's lives," the attorney general said in a written statement. "Even so, I have aggressively held these companies accountable for the harm they've caused in order to protect the safety and health of Minnesotans."

Ellison said funds from the settlement are "urgently needed" to keep Minnesotans safe from the opioid epidemic that has cost 5,500 lives in the state. He added that if he finds the Teva settlement acceptable, the money will go to existing programs created by previous settlements, and reiterated past statements that the money "will go where the pain is, and I hope cities and counties sign on."

The attorney general said he also wants the proposed settlement to be transparent so the public can see "what the opioid companies did to us" and can't do it again.

Minnesota Department of Health data suggest the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the existing opioid epidemic.

From 2020, when the pandemic began, to 2021, opioid-involved overdose deaths in Minnesota increased by 35% to a record high of 924. For every fatal overdose, there were approximately 10 nonfatal overdoses, including 7,698 in the Twin Cities area and more than 5,000 in the rest of the state.

Teva's $4.25 billion will be paid out over 13 years and includes $100 million to American Indian tribes. Of the settlement, $1.2 billion worth of wholesale valued generic Narcan — the drug that can quickly reverse an opioid overdose — will be provided.

In comparison, the $26 billion Johnson & Johnson multistate settlement was expected to bring $300 million to Minnesota over the next 18 years. The first payments were expected this month.

In a statement, Teva said it expects to have the agreement finalized in the coming weeks with the sign-on process for states, subdivisions and tribes coming after that. The agreement, which includes no admission of wrongdoing by the company, will conclude the company's opioid litigation. "It remains in our best interest to put these cases behind us and continue to focus on the patients we serve every day," the Teva statement said.

In addition to the Johnson & Johnson settlement, Ellison also settled with Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, in July 2021; consultancy McKinsey & Company, February 2021; manufacturer Mallinckrodt, October 2020; and manufacturer Insys, January 2020.