$4.25 Billion Opioid Settlement by Teva Pharmaceuticals

The opioid epidemic has run rampant since the 1900s. While healthcare professionals play some role in the spread of opioid use, pharmaceutical companies are the main culprit. Recently, Teva Pharmaceuticals reached a preliminary settlement for $4.25 billion.

According to the NIDA, up to 29% of people prescribed an opioid for pain management will abuse them. The CDC approximates that 75% of drug overdoses involve an opioid. Furthermore, data in a StatPearls textbook found that 16 million people have or have had opioid use disorder.

According to an article in the New York Times, “though much lesser-known, Teva, an Israeli company, and its affiliates produced far more prescription opioids during the peak years of the crisis than marquee-name opioid manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson did.”

Teva is thought to have contributed significantly more than Purdue Pharma to the number of opioids in circulation and the portion of the population with opioid use disorder.

It is thought that Teva knew of its impact on the opioid epidemic and failed to admit its participation.

Based on a press release from July 11, 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Teva Pharmaceuticals was actively deceitful regarding the drugs it produced and its role in marketing the product in the United States.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said, “new evidence uncovered by OAG shows that, despite sworn testimony provided to the court that Teva Parent transacted no business in the United States, held no property in the United States, and had no role in its American opioids business, Teva Parent was a primary decision maker for its American subsidiary, maintained property and employees in the country, and exerted control over its finances,” in the release.

According to a financial report released by Teva, the $4.25 billion settlement includes $1.2 billion in Narcan, an overdose reversal medication.

Meanwhile, the company grossed $1,794 million in the second quarter of this year. The company is expected to make between $15 and $15.6 billion in revenue throughout 2022.

Despite the clear contributions of the company to the epidemic, there will be no admission of wrongdoing.

“While the agreement will include no admission of wrongdoing, it remains in our best interest to put these cases behind us and continue to focus on the patients we serve every day,” stated the company in their release.

It is unclear how the settlement will benefit people impacted by opioid use disorder as allocations of the funds have not been announced.

However, this settlement will not amount to a fraction of what proper opioid use disorder treatment amounts to; according to the NIDA, the economic burden of opioid use disorder is $2.8 billion each year for treatment alone. That number grows to $78.5 billion when considering additional factors such as loss of productivity, additional healthcare costs, and criminal justice involvement.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) calculates that treatment drugs cost between $5,980 and $14,112 annually, making opioid use disorder treatment more expensive than diabetes and kidney disease costs.

As the settlement progresses, the public will await final decisions on the matter.