Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) has offered to give away more than $15 billion in generic drugs in exchange for settling all the US lawsuits against it for allegedly causing opioid painkiller addiction, "Bloomberg" reports. The agreement would run over 10 years and the drugs would include Teva's Narcan for treating opioid addiction, the sources told "Bloomberg." Teva US based spokesperson Kelley Dougherty declined to comment on the report.
Teva officials, "Bloomberg" adds, have told the attorneys generals’ lawyers that the company’s debt load leaves little free cash flow for an opioid settlement. Consequently sources said that it is offering free, a generic version of Narcan, a nasal spray to treat addiction that was approved by the FDA in April.
University of Georgia law professor Elizabeth Burch told "Bloomberg", that Teva’s bid to use the drugs-for-dismissal model to resolve its opioid liability may indicate the company could face bankruptcy if the proposal gets turned down. "I guess free drugs are better than nothing, but it’s not perfect," she said. "The real question is whether the local government wants to keep this company out of bankruptcy by accepting this offer."
Teva has already agreed to pay $85 million compensation for opioid addiction in Oklahoma and next week a court case on the matter will open in Cleveland, Ohio.
Teva is one of many pharmaceutical manufacturers and distribution companies facing lawsuits over their role in aggressive marketing of opioid painkillers, which caused an epidemic of addiction and many fatalities.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 16, 2019
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