Virginia to receive about $530M through opioid agreement with four companies

Virginia and its localities expect to receive about $530 million as part of a $26-billion national opioid settlement between 52 states and territories and four companies – Johnson & Johnson and pharmaceutical distributors Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. Those companies will start releasing funds to a national administrator Apr. 2, and money will begin arriving to state and local governments in the second quarter of 2022.

“The opioid crisis has devastated many Virginia communities, families, and lives,” said Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. “The Office of the Attorney General is dedicated to this fight and is proud to have played a role in this historic settlement, which every city and county in Virginia joined.”

The agreement marks the culmination of three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims of state and local governments across the country. It is the second largest multistate agreement in U.S. history, second only to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. State negotiations were led by Attorneys General Josh Stein (North Carolina) and Herbert Slatery (Tennessee) and the attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Fifty-two states and territories signed on to the agreement, as did thousands of local governments across the country.

In Virginia, all 95 counties and all 38 independent cities have signed on. A majority of the funds distributed to Virginia will go to Virginia’s Opioid Abatement Authority, which provides grants and loans to Virginia agencies and localities to support efforts to reduce, prevent, and treat opioid use disorder and fight the opioid epidemic.

“The opioid epidemic has touched lives in every county, city, and corner of the Commonwealth. This historic settlement will provide resources to help us fight back against opioid addiction and create lasting impact in our communities,” said Senator Todd Pillion, chair of the Opioid Abatement Authority.

In addition to the funds, Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen will:

• 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.

Johnson & Johnson is required 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.