The City of Baltimore reached a $152.5 million settlement with Cardinal Health to resolve ongoing opioid litigation, Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s office announced Friday, August 16, 2024.
This latest settlement brings the total recoveries so far for Baltimore to $242.5 million in its opioid litigation settlements. The deal with Cardinal Health resolves the city’s claims against them related to their role in the worst opioid epidemic in the nation. They will pay the entire amount this year.
Baltimore City’s settlement with Cardinal is the third deal related to its opioid litigation. Earlier this summer, the city accepted a $45 million deal with Allergan, and last week, the city settled with CVS for $45 million. There are five remaining defendant groups in the litigation, and Baltimore City’s case against them proceeds on September 16, 2024.
Cardinal Health is one of the three largest opioid distributors in Baltimore. The deal announced today is unprecedented in nationwide opioid litigation. This is because in 2021, Cardinal Health, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson — all facing litigation for their role in the national opioid crisis — reached a global settlement with nearly every other state, county, and city in the United States.
Baltimore, however, did not join that settlement. Had it joined, it would have received less than $70 million, and it would have been paid out over two decades from those companies. Under the settlements Baltimore City achieved with just one of those four defendants, it will receive more than twice that amount to be delivered within just four months.
“We have said from the beginning that we are committed to do the right thing, not the popular thing or the easy thing – and these settlements are proof that our decision to reject the global settlements and carry on this fight was the right one,” Scott said. “The city and our extraordinary outside counsel built an overwhelming case against the opioid companies, and we have recovered vastly more resources than we would have under the global settlements. As our city and partners continue our daily work combatting the impacts of Baltimore’s opioid epidemic that these manufacturers and distributors caused, the resources delivered by these settlements will have a transformative impact on our work.”
“I am proud of the work the city’s legal team has done during the past several years to build this incredible case, and we will continue to work to provide justice to the people of Baltimore and hold the opioid companies accountable for the significant harms they caused in this city,” said Ebony Thompson, Baltimore City Solicitor.
The city will use the funds from Cardinal only for opioid remediation and for substance use treatment centers and community organizations throughout Baltimore: $5 million for Tuerk House, Inc., $5 million for Helping Up Mission; $3 million for Baltimore Safe Haven; $3 million for HOPE Safe Haven; $2 million for More Than a Shop; $1 million for Marian House; and $1 million for Turnaround Tuesday.
The Maryland Office of Overdose Response released a report this week outlining the city’s successes in combating the opioid epidemic, which has taken the lives of nearly 6,000 people in Baltimore City. The report shows that 91% of the city’s overdose prevention programs are either substantially or partially implemented.
“We continue to be proud to partner with Mayor Scott and the City of Baltimore to fight this deadly epidemic and bring justice to everyone affected by it,” said Bill Carmody, a partner at Susman Godfrey, who is leading the outside legal team on this matter.
