Nevada ends opioid litigation, wins over $1B in legal actions

Attorney General Aaron Ford announced the end of Nevada’s opioid litigation on Wednesday, marking the more than $1.1 billion the state has won after four years of legal action.

Walgreens was the final defendant Nevada challenged in multiple lawsuits over the opioid epidemic, and the company recently reached a $285 million settlement with the state, Ford announced during a news conference at the Sawyer Building in Las Vegas. The state has now reached 12 settlement or bankruptcy agreements in its opioid-related litigation, said John Sadler, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.

“Sadly there is no shortage of uses for money earmarked to fight the opioid epidemic in Nevada,” Ford said Wednesday. “Our state has been devastated by the opioid crisis. It’s been, and continues to be, one of the hardest hit by this crisis.”

After attorney fees, the state will retain about $98 million of the settlement, while about $116 million will go to various local agencies through the One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries. The agreement was established to determine how money from opioid-related settlements will be allocated throughout the state and local governments.

Walgreens will be required to make annual payments over the next 15 years, starting in December.

The $98 million going directly to the state will be placed in the Fund for Resilient Nevada, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office. The account is meant to fund evidence-based programs to address opioid use in the state.

The attorney general’s office worked with Ford’s former law firm, Eglet Adams, throughout the opioid litigation, which Ford first announced in June 2019 with a complaint that named more than 40 defendants. The law firm was chosen as outside counsel through a selection committee, from which Ford recused himself.

The 2019 complaint alleged that drug manufacturers pushed doctors to prescribe opioids while downplaying the drugs’ side effects and that distributors supplied more opioids than justified for the Nevada market.

Nevada had reached its most recent settlement over the opioid epidemic with the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva Pharmaceuticals. In that settlement the state won $193 million, the attorney general’s office announced in June.

The pharmaceutical company was required by the settlement to take steps to address the epidemic, such as banning the promotion of opioids, financial incentives to sell the drugs and funding to third parties that promote opioids. The company also was required to impose lobbying restrictions and develop monitoring programs.

Ford said Wednesday that Walgreens had reached “comparable” terms in its settlement. Chief Deputy Attorney General Mark Krueger said Walgreens and other companies named as defendants in the lawsuits are required to work together to “try to set up red flags” to catch customers who are abusing or illegally distributing opioids.

Although other states have reached joint settlements with pharmaceutical companies, Ford said Wednesday that Nevada has received more money by pursuing its own lawsuits.

“These larger recoveries more accurately reflect the damage the opioid crisis has wrought in our state of approximately 3 million people,” he said.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.