By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – New Mexico has agreed to join a proposed nationwide settlement worth up to $21 billion resolving claims that the three largest U.S. drug distributors helped fuel a deadly opioid epidemic, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday.
The state was one of eight that until now was not participating in the landmark accord with McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Cardinal Health Inc.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, in a statement, said the funds the state will receive from the deal will “allow us to move forward and start to rebuild our communities decimated by this crisis.”
The exact amount that will flow to New Mexico will depend on to what extent its local governments opt to participate in the settlement.
The state did not agree to join a related $5 billion proposed settlement with the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
The distributors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More than 3,300 lawsuits by largely state and local governments have been filed seeking to hold various companies responsible for a drug abuse crisis the U.S. government says led to nearly 500,000 opioid overdose deaths over two decades.
The lawsuits generally accuse drugmakers of downplaying the addictive risks of their pain-killers and distributors and pharmacies of ignoring red flags that the drugs were being diverted for illicit uses. The companies deny wrongdoing.
A group of state attorneys general announced the proposed nationwide settlement in July. The distributors in September said 42 states, five territories and Washington, D.C., had joined it.
Cities and counties within participating states have through Jan. 2 to join as well. The state of Washington recently took the distributors to trial seeking billions of dollars more than it could recoup in the settlement.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Dan Grebler)
