FEATURE
How the National Opioid Settlement Will Affect Berks County Cody L. Kauffman, Esq.
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he devastating effects of the opioid epidemic have been felt nationwide. Berks County, like most parts of the Country, has not been immune to the impact that the opioid epidemic has had on municipalities. Notably, in 2021, Berks County found its overdose death rate to exceed the national average. The difficulty in fighting the opioid epidemic has been compounded in recent years with the ever-growing prevalence of Fentanyl and the unique challenges posed by the COVID pandemic. Faced with these growing difficulties, many states and local political subdivisions decided to pursue litigation against opioid pharmaceutical distributors and manufacturers to secure some measure of relief against the unrelenting challenges posed by opioids on communities.
participate in, the National Opioid Settlement. With money from the settlement beginning to flow through the County, this article aims to provide background on the litigation, the settlement, and, how the distributed money will be used to combat the opioid epidemic in Berks County.
In what has collectively become known as the “National Opioid Settlement,” nationwide settlements have been reached to resolve all litigation against the three largest pharmaceutical distributors: McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen (“Distributors”) and manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and its better-known parent company, Johnson & Johnson (“Manufacturers”). Berks County, as a political subdivision, was eligible for, and has agreed to
While varied in nature, the underlying allegations of most of the lawsuits involve claims of deceptive marketing practices and/or overdistribution of opioids. The Manufacturers and Distributors agreed to pay a total of $26 Billion to resolve the litigation. continued on next page
As the name implies, the National Opioid Settlement is not specific to Berks County, nor to Pennsylvania for that matter. Rather, the settlement was a product of negotiations that involved a bipartisan group of State Attorney Generals. Prior to agreeing to the settlement, negotiations had been ongoing for many years. The settlement resolves over 4,000 claims of local and state governments throughout the Country.
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