Suffolk Reaches Settlements With ‘Big Three’ Drug Companies

Suffolk County officials ushered in another settlement in the ongoing litigation with pharmaceutical companies over their roles in the opioid crisis on Long Island.

The three largest drug distributors, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc, and AmerisourceBergen Corp, will dole out at least $86 million to each county over 18 years, which officials said would go straight toward drug treatment and prevention.

“We’ve been working on this issue at an extraordinary cost,” said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. “These dollars can never replace who has been lost and the families that have been devastated … but it will help lift the burden off taxpayers, bring some relief, and hold [drug companies] accountable.”

Bellone said that Suffolk would likely end up with about $120 million from all settlements and will convene a committee to allocate the dollars toward various drug abuse programs.

This is the largest opioid settlement in United States history and comes just as drug distributors are set to pay more than $1 billion to New York and billions nationwide in lawsuits over opioids.

The deal with New York Attorney General Letitia James, Suffolk and Nassau counties came three weeks into the first jury trial accusing companies of profiting from a flood of addictive painkillers that devastated communities. That trial is being held at Central Islip federal court.

“While no amount of money will ever compensate for the millions of addictions, the hundreds of thousands of deaths, or the countless communities decimated by opioids, this money will be vital in preventing any future devastation,” James said.

In a joint statement, the distributors called the settlement “an important step toward finalizing a broad settlement with states, counties, and political subdivisions.”

Nearly 500,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the United States from 1999 to 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the crisis appeared to have worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic

The CDC last week said provisional data showed that 2020 was a record year for drug overdose deaths with 93,331, up 29% from a year earlier. Opioids were involved in 74.7%, or 69,710, of those fatalities.

-With Reuters via Long Island Press