By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – A court-appointed panel on Friday recommended how to distribute a pool of $2.13 billion in legal fees from nationwide pharmaceutical industry settlements over the U.S. opioid crisis, with top firms set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars.
The panel gave national firm Motley Rice the largest share, with 18.6% of the funds, or $396 million. Other companies with large shares include New York-based Simmons Hanly Conroy, with 11.4%, or $244 million; California-based Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, with 8.2%, or $174 million; and California-based Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, with 5.65%, or $120 million.
The $2.13 billion compensation pool stems from settlements totaling more than $46 billion that drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies reached to resolve lawsuits brought by local and Native American tribal governments accusing them of fueling the opioid addiction epidemic.
The money was set aside as a so-called pooled benefits fund to compensate law firms for the work they did that benefited all plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster, who has overseen the sprawling opioid lawsuits since 2017, also ruled Friday that companies have until June 21 to appeal the panel’s recommendations before they become final.
The reimbursements stem from settlements with drugmakers Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:), AbbVie (NYSE:) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE:); distributors Cencora, McKesson (NYSE:) and Cardinal health (NYSE:); and pharmacies CVS, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:) and Walmart (NYSE:).
They do not include a settlement of up to $6 billion with bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, which is being funded by that company’s Sackler family owners in exchange for protection from future lawsuits. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing whether this settlement is legal.
Opioid settlements, including both the nationwide deals and separate agreements negotiated by individual states, now total well over $50 billion. However, many state and local governments have yet to develop detailed plans for how they will spend the money to address the harm caused by opioids.
More than 800,000 people died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2023, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Plaintiffs in the lawsuits say drugmakers downplayed the risks of the drugs, and distributors and pharmacies ignored red flags that they were being diverted to illegal channels.
