Johnson & Johnson agrees to pay $149.5M to settle Washington state opioid claims

Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Johnson & Johnson officials agreed to pay a proposed $149.5 million settlement to the state of Washington to settle a lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

Ferguson announced the settlement agreement on Wednesday and said Johnson & Johnson would pay the $149.5 million in one lump sum during the current fiscal year.

Settlement terms require $123.3 million to be used for combating the fentanyl epidemic in the state and distribute half of that amount to local units throughout the state of Washington, Ferguson said.

"We have an urgent need for resources to address the fentanyl crisis that is impacting communities in every corner of the state,"Ferguson said. "We are standing up to some of the largest corporations in the world that fueled the epidemic in pursuit of profit, and we are winning critical resources that must be used to address the harm."

The proposed settlement terms require all funds paid to be used to remediate the opioid crisis in the state of Washington.

Although the settlement deal has been reached, the state's local units of government must ratify the settlement agreement by May for it to take effect. Once ratified, Johnson & Johnson would have up to 21 days to pay the lump-sum settlement, Ferguson said.

The state of Washington has 125 local government units, all of which approved prior settlement agreements. Ferguson said he expects them to likewise approve the proposed Johnson & Johnson settlement.

If ratified, the state would get $24.4 million more than it would have if state officials had agreed to a national settlement in 2021 that would have paid $98.9 million over a nine-year period, according to the state attorney general's office. If the settlement isn't ratified, the current lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson would continue.

Johnson & Johnson became the nation's primary supplier of the opioid ingredients used to make opioid drugs. Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries produced opioid drugs from the 1990s through 2016 and sold the ingredients to other manufacturers to make oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, naloxone and other opioid drugs, according to the state of Washington Attorney General's office.

Ferguson said his office has enabled the state to obtain more than $1.2 billion in settlement funds to help it and local units fight the opioid and fentanyl pandemic that remains ongoing in Washington state.

In 2022, Ferguson reached a settlement agreement with Purdue Pharma that would net $183 million for the state of Washington if a bankruptcy court OKs the settlement payment.

Three of the nation's largest opioid distributors in 2022 also agreed to settle lawsuits filed by Ferguson that netted the state a combined $518 million from McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp.

The $518 million settlement is $46 million more than the state would have gotten in a national settlement offer, Ferguson said.