Rahway will participate in a $26-billion settlement with four pharmaceutical companies involved in the opioid crisis along with dozens of other states, counties and municipalities.
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City Council approved a resolution (AR-264) during its Dec. 13 regular meeting to participate in a nationwide opioid settlement with McKesson, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and Johnson & Johnson.
“Participation in the nationwide settlements will not only hold the companies financially accountable by requiring payments of as much as $26 billion,” according to the resolution, “but will also provide funding to support programs that address the opioid epidemic in New Jersey and across the country, and will require significant changes in the pharmaceutical industry aimed at preventing similar crises in the future.”
County and municipal governments had until Jan. 2 to join, according to the resolution, provided enough states opted to participate in the settlements.
Acting New Jersey Attorney General Andrew Bruck announced in August that New Jersey intends to join nationwide settlement agreements with the four pharmaceutical distributors to resolve claims involving their roles in abetting the opioid crisis.
“At this juncture, it’s just makes us eligible and other members of the community eligible,” City AdministratorJacqueline Foushee said in a telephone interview last month. The more parties involved in the class action suit, “the better the leverage and heavier hand to represent everyone’s interest.”
If there are any payments as a result of the settlement, the city would want to be involved, Foushee said, whether education for kids about the use of drugs and opioids. “We just want to be able to get that funding and help us with that type of program,” she said. “Whether a nonprofit or other entity, we don’t want to miss the opportunity to see that the city supported it as well.”
Forty-two states, five territories and Washington, D.C., agreed to a proposed $21-billion settlement with McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp, and Cardinal Health Inc., and a $5 billion agreement with Johnson & Johnson, according to Reuters. Alabama, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Washington, West Virginia are not participating in the settlement while New Hampshire agreed to settle only with the distributors and Rhode Island joined only J&J’s deal.
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