Teva's $4.25B opioid settlement gets support from 48 states and will move forward

As the biopharma industry moves into the new year, Teva is looking to put the past behind it.

After proposing a blockbuster $4.25 billion opioid settlement, the drugmaker has secured participation from 48 states and “will continue to pursue participation” from others, Teva said in a company statement. The two holdout states are Nevada and New Mexico, a Teva spokesperson told Fierce Pharma via email.

With the high level of support, the company's deal will move forward through the courts. The settlement will resolve opioid claims from states, cities, counties and other subdivisions.

Next, the company will begin the sign-on process for the states’ subdivisions. Given the “very positive” response from individual states, Teva “remains optimistic” that the nationwide settlement will gather support from smaller subdivisions.

The agreement does not include an admission of wrongdoing, Teva pointed out in its statement, but remains “in the company’s best interest.”

Teva revealed the $4.25 billion settlement figure during its second quarter earnings release last yaer, when the company announced that it had struck the proposed deal. At the time, the company warned that a sufficient number of plaintiffs would need to sign on in order for the agreement to go through.

Under the deal, Teva would pay the $4.25 billion sum over a 13-year span. That number includes up to $1.2 billion of Teva’s generic version of overdose reversal drug Narcan.