Native American tribes have reached settlements over the toll of opioids totaling $590 million with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and the country’s three largest drug distribution companies.
Highlights
- The settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing, Johnson & Johnson says.
- All federally recognized tribes in the U.S.
- will be able to participate in the settlements, even if they did not sue over opioids.
- The money for tribes will come out of larger settlements.
- The drugs, including both prescription drugs such as OxyContin and illicit ones including heroin and illegally made fentanyl, have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the United States in the past two decades.
- The settlement would take effect when 95 percent of the tribes with lawsuits against the companies agree to the settlement, a lawyer representing 28 tribes says.