LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The state of Nevada has reached a $193 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals to settle claims that the company's marketing practices helped fuel opioid addiction.
The Israel-based pharmaceutical company sells the brand-name, fentanyl-based drugs Actiq and Fentora, that are used to treat breakthrough cancer pain, and has sold generic opioid drugs.
According to Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, Teva will make annual payments to Nevada from 2024 through 2043. That will be on a sliding scale starting at $7 million and going up to $27 million. Ford said that to date, opioid litigation settlements have brought $856 million to the Silver State.
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"This settlement is the most recent example of my office's work to hold accountable those who contributed to the opioid epidemic facing Nevadans," Ford said in a statement. "The money coming into Nevada from these settlements will help our state recover and will help resources flow to the Nevadans impacted by this epidemic."
Back in 2021, Nevada lawmakers created a fund, which directs money recovered from opioid litigation to fund programs through the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and develop a state needs assessment, which identifies the effects and impacts of opioids across the state.
Ford said in addition to making payments, the settlement requires Teva to ban promoting opioids, ban financial incentives for selling opioids, banning funding to third-parties that promote opioids, and develop and implement monitoring programs.
According to the CDC, more than half a million people died from drug overdoses in the United States in the period from 1999 to 2020.
