Troup County joins second opioid settlement

Published 8:00 am Saturday, March 25, 2023

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On Tuesday night, the Troup County Board of Commissioners approved participation in a second opioid crisis settlement.

County Attorney Jerry Willis said the first opioid settlement was with a national distributor and Johnson & Johnson. The new settlements involve different defendants.

Between November and December of 2022, five additional defendants have entered into national opioid settlements. Attorneys in the lawsuit have reached settlement agreements against Teva, Allergan, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, said Willis.

Troup County CFO Sonya Conroy said they recently received $90,000 from the first settlement. Funds from the new settlement have not been determined. The national settlement is opt-in so any funds received will be affected by the number of plaintiffs.

The greater the level of participation in the settlement, the more funds will ultimately be paid out.

Assuming maximum participation, the settlements will require:

4Teva to pay up to $3.34 billion over 13 years and to provide either $1.2 billion of its generic version of the drug Narcan over 10 years or $240 million of cash in lieu of product

4Allergan to pay up to $2.02 billion over 7 years

4CVS to pay up to $4.90 billion over 10 years

4Walgreens to pay up to $5.52 billion over 15 years

4Walmart to pay up to $2.74 billion in 2023

All payments are to be made within six years.

The board unanimously approved a motion to authorize the county manager to sign off on a memorandum of participation for the settlement and for the chairman to sign a resolution if a more formal action is needed.

In other business, the commissioners approved a beer and wine license for Mohammad Dar at the Pony Express convenience store at 1891 Vernon Rd.