Baltimore settled with the opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson on the eve of a major trial against pharmaceutical companies that begins Monday.
Details of the settlement remain secret, unlike previous opioid settlements that the city has announced in recent weeks.
“The city settled with Johnson & Johnson,” said Bryan Doherty, Mayor Brandon Scott’s communications director. “It cannot at this time discuss any of the specific terms of the settlement.”
Johnson & Johnson said it would not comment on the agreement.
As of last week, the city had won $402.5 million in settlements with drug companies, including Walgreens, Cardinal Health, CVS and Allergan. The Johnson & Johnson settlement will add to that total, though by how much remains unclear. The city cannot discuss specifics while its case is still pending under the terms of the deal, Doherty said.
The city and Johnson & Johnson filed a joint motion over the weekend to remove the opioid manufacturer from the case.
With the settlement, only two defendants remain in the city’s opioid lawsuit, which accuses drugmakers and distributors of irresponsibly marketing painkillers without concern for their addictiveness and failing to halt unusually large orders of opioids to Baltimore pharmacies.
More than half a billion legal painkillers flooded the Baltimore area between 2006 and 2019, at the peak of the drugs’ availability. The city claims in its lawsuit that the oversupply introduced opioids to a new generation of users, contributing to an ongoing addiction and overdose crisis.
Overdose deaths happen in Baltimore at a rate higher than in any other major American city, a joint New York Times/Baltimore Banner investigation found this year.
The city’s lawsuit is set to go to trial this week, with jury selection beginning today. The only remaining defendants are McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, now known as Cencora, two major opioid distributors who are accused of failing to properly monitor orders of painkillers being shipped into communities across the country, including Baltimore.
The Johnson & Johnson settlement is the latest in a string of victories for the city, which took a gamble two years ago when it declined to participate in a $400 million global settlement reached by the state of Maryland. That money will be split among the state and local governments over decades. By deciding to go it alone, the city could have lost out if the lawsuit failed; instead, as the case neared trial, most of the opioid companies decided to settle to avoid a potentially costly jury verdict.
Now, the city has won more from its one-on-one opioid settlements than the sum of the entire global settlement Maryland reached with Johnson & Johnson and the three major opioid distributors — Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen.
Scott previously laid out a plan for spending the cash that includes several layers of review. While some of the money has already been allocated, much of it will be placed in an investment trust to be doled out over years. A new board will make recommendations for spending the money. Those decisions will be reviewed by a second committee and the mayor has final say Community organizations, health care providers and city agencies will be able to apply for money from the trust.
A large portion of the money will also go to the city’s outside counsel, the law firm Susman Godfrey. Law firms that take cases on contingency usually keep about one-third of the winnings. The city has also paid back Susman Godfrey for some of the costs it incurred during the sprawling litigation.
Madeleine O’Neill is a Baltimore-based freelance journalist.
