Nessel shares participation progress, estimated payments
The deadline for eligible municipalities to voluntarily participate in two historic opioid settlements has been extended to Wednesday, January 26.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is urging those eligible to sign up for direct payments, which could begin as early as April 2022.
The state formally signed on to the proposed multibillion-dollar national settlements in August, which is with Johnson & Johnson and the three largest pharmaceutical distributors in the country: Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. Michigan is positioned to receive nearly $800 million over 18 years.
Based on the settlement terms, there are 277 local units of government – called subdivisions in the settlement agreement – eligible to participate in Michigan.
Each of Michigan’s counties are part of that 277 total. Other municipalities are eligible if:
• The municipality is currently litigating against the defendants; or
• The municipality has a population of 10,000 people or more.
The original deadline was January 2. The Department is sharing registration status as 1:30 p.m. Monday, January 3, for the eligible subdivisions on its settlement webpage.
The document reflects two status columns because there are two settlements. The estimate noted for each subdivision reflects the total anticipated amount if the subdivision elects to participate in both settlements.
The document also notes the direct payments each subdivision is estimated to receive if the voluntary participation process is completed.
“There remain hundreds of thousands of dollars available to eligible subdivisions that have not yet registered to participate in these historic settlements,” Nessel said. “This money will bolster prevention and treatment efforts in our communities that have been hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. I continue to urge municipalities to join us in receiving direct payments that can have a direct impact in combatting the damage done by opioids.”
Applicants can sign up by January 26 to participate and receive direct payments. Eligible subdivisions can email AG-OpioidLitigation@michigan.gov for help with the process.
Additional information on this historic settlement can be found on the Department’s website. The direct URL is michigan.gov/AGOpioids.
—Settlement Background
State negotiations were led by Attorneys General Josh Stein (NC), Herbert Slatery (TN) and the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The agreement in principle was reached by all parties in October of 2019 and the parties have been working on the particulars of the settlement since then.
Funding Overview:
• The three distributors collectively will pay up to $21 billion over 18 years.
• Johnson & Johnson will pay up to $5 billion over nine years with up to $3.7 billion paid during the first three years.
• The total funding distributed will be determined by the overall degree of participation by both litigating and non-litigating state and local governments.
• The substantial majority of the money is to be spent on opioid treatment and prevention.
• Each state’s share of the funding has been determined by agreement among the states using a formula that takes into account the population of the state along with the impact of the crisis on the state - the number of overdose deaths, the number of residents with substance use disorder, and the number of opioids prescribed.
—Injunctive Relief Overview:
• Requires Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, through court orders, to:
-Establish a centralized independent clearinghouse to provide all three distributors and state regulators with aggregated data and analytics about where drugs are going and how often, eliminating blind spots in the current systems used by distributors.
-Use data-driven systems to detect suspicious opioid orders from customer pharmacies.
-Terminate customer pharmacies’ ability to receive shipments, and report those companies to state regulators, when they show certain signs of diversion.
-Prohibit shipping of and report suspicious opioid orders.
-Prohibit sales staff from influencing decisions related to identifying suspicious opioid orders.
-Require senior corporate officials to engage in regular oversight of anti-diversion efforts.
• Requires Johnson & Johnson, through court orders, to:
-Stop selling opioids.
-Not fund or provide grants to third parties for promoting opioids.
-Not lobby on activities related to opioids.
-Share clinical trial data under the Yale University Open Data Access Project.
A national website has been created to provide additional information on the settlement at https://nationalopioidsettlement.com.
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