Tribes Reach $590 Million Opioid Settlement with J. & J. and Distributors
“Hundreds of Native American tribes that have suffered disproportionately high addiction and death rates during the opioid epidemic agreed on Tuesday to a tentative settlement of $590 million with Johnson & Johnson and the country’s three largest drug distributors. Together with a deal,” reports Jan Hoffman in their The New York Times.
“Struck last fall between the distributors and the Cherokee Nation for $75 million, the tribes will be paid a total of $665 million. Purdue Pharma has already committed at least tens of millions more to the tribes in a settlement that is in mediation. We are not solving the opioid crisis with this settlement, but we are getting critical resources.”
