Brendan Pearson
(Reuters) – A court-appointed panel on Friday recommended splitting $2.13 billion in legal fees from nationwide pharmaceutical industry settlements over the U.S. opioid crisis, with leading firms receiving hundreds of millions of dollars.
The commission gave the largest share to the national company Motley Rice – 18.6% of the funds, or $396 million. Other firms with large holdings include New York-based Simmons Hanly Conroy with 11.4%, or $244 million; Californian company Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd with a share of 8.2%, or $174 million; and California-based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein with a 5.65% stake, or $120 million.
The $2.13 billion in fees comes from more than $46 billion in payments received by drug makers, distributors and pharmacies to settle lawsuits by local and Native American tribal governments accusing them of fueling the opioid addiction epidemic.
The money was allocated to what is known as a general benefits fund to compensate law firms for the work they did that benefited all the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who has overseen the growing opioid litigation since 2017, also ruled Friday that companies have until June 21 to appeal the panel’s recommendations before they become final.
The fees relate to settlements with drug makers Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:), AbbVie (NYSE:) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:); distributors Cencora, McKesson (NYSE:) and Cardinal Health (New York Stock Exchange:); and CVS, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:) and Walmart (NYSE:) pharmacies.
They do not include a settlement of up to $6 billion with bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, which is being financed by the Sackler family of that company’s owners in exchange for protection from future lawsuits. The US Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether the agreement is legal.
Opioid payouts, including both nationwide deals and individual state-by-state agreements, currently total more than $50 billion. However, many state and local governments have yet to develop detailed plans for how they will spend money to address the harm caused by opioids.
More than 800,000 people died from opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2023, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Plaintiffs in the lawsuits say drug makers downplay the risks of the drugs and distributors and pharmacies ignore warning signs that they are being diverted into illicit channels.