National News
Opioid suits on verge of settlements with four companies
The years-long effort by state and local governments in the U.S. to force the pharmaceutical industry to help pay to fix a nationwide opioid addiction and overdose crisis took a major step forward Tuesday when lawyers for local governments announced they were on the verge of a $26 billion settlement with the nation s three biggest drug distribution companies and the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
by Associated Press
Jul. 20 2021 @ 5:54pm
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, right, speaks at a news conference to discuss a settlement in an opioid trial, Tuesday, July 20, 2021, in Central Islip, N.Y. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone is behind her. New York State reached an agreement Tuesday with the distribution companies AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson to settle an ongoing trial. That deal alone would generate more than $1 billion to abate the damage done by opioids there. The trial is expe
Delta Variant Cases Doubling Every 2 Weeks In Maryland; Some Fear Return To Restrictions
CBS Baltimore 2 hrs ago Syndicated Local – CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ) Patrice Jackson’s mask is not going anywhere with more contagious Delta variant cases on the rise.
“I wear it for safety reasons. I know they have this new strain of Covid so I just wear the mask to be safe,” Jackson said Tuesday as she headed to buy groceries in North Baltimore. “I thought it was all over, and then I said ‘Oh Lord, here we go again.’”
In Baltimore City over the past 4 weeks, cases are up 26 percent; the positivity rate is up 28 percent, but deaths (7-day average is zero) are down by 100 percent. @wjz#COVID19pic.twitter.com/rGBaVCLk9k
The deal echoes one that the companies have been pushing, sometimes in public, for two years.
Johnson & Johnson reiterated in a statement that it’s prepared to contribute up to $5 billion to the national settlement. There continues to be progress toward finalizing this agreement and we remain committed to providing certainty for involved parties and critical assistance for families and communities in need, the company said. “ The settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing, and the Company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve.
But Cardinal Health declined to comment early Tuesday, and the other distribution companies did not respond to requests for comment.
1 of 8
FILE - This Aug. 29, 2018, file photo shows an arrangement of Oxycodone pills in New York. A $26 billion settlement between the three biggest U.S. drug distribution companies and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and thousands of states and municipalities that sued over the toll of the opioid crisis is certainly significant, but it is far from tying a neat bow on the tangle of still unresolved lawsuits surrounding the epidemic.
Mark Lennihan
FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2021, file photo, Johnson & Johnson logo appears on the exterior of a first aid kit in Walpole, Mass. A $26 billion settlement between the three biggest U.S. drug distribution companies and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and thousands of states and municipalities that sued over the toll of the opioid crisis is certainly significant, but it is far from tying a neat bow on the tangle of still unresolved lawsuits surrounding the epidemic.
/ Wyoming’s Platte County and Colorado’s San Miguel County each have a population of a little over 8,000 people. Both counties entered June 2021 with high covid transmission rates and sustained them for several weeks straight. Despite different overall levels of vaccination, both counties are dealing with pockets of unvaccinated residents.
WHEATLAND, Wyo. Brandon Graves said covid arrived in Wheatland the way new movies do in this High Plains farming town: months after hitting the big cities and without much fanfare.
“It kind of trickled in and it never really exploded here,” said Graves, a lifelong resident and mayor of the town of about 3,500, the largest in Platte County.