Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) and three US pharmaceutical distribution companies have reached a pre-trial settlement for allegedly aggressively marketing addictive opioid painkillers, Judge Dan A. Polster of the Northern District of Ohio has announced, according to "The New York Times." McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen will pay $215 million to the two Ohio counties that brought the case, people familiar with the agreement told "The New York Times," while Teva will pay $20 million and donate $25 million in addiction treatment drugs.
Following the news, Teva's share price was up 3.07% at $7.73 on Wall Street, giving a market cap of $7.715 billion.
The two Ohio counties had been suing the pharmaceutical companies and the Walgreen-Boots Alliance pharmacy chain, which is not part of this settlement, for over $8 billion.
This is Teva's second pre-trial settlement in the opioid addiction affair. In May, Teva agreed to pay $85 million to the State of Oklahoma.
There are more than 2,300 such opioid suits pending against Teva and there have been reports that the company is negotiating for a global federal settlement of all these cases.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 21, 2019
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