By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Staff
A landmark opioid settlement has been agreed to in principle by a major pharmaceutical company, three distributors, and all tribes in Indian Country. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) will share in this settlement along with any of the other 573 federally recognized tribes who wish to participate; although, a monetary amount for each is not yet known.
Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals will pay $150 million over two years to the settlement, and pharmaceutical distributors AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Cardinal Health will pay up to $439,964,500 over six years.
The Settlement Court Statement, issued on Tuesday, Feb. 1, states in part, “The Native American population has suffered some of the worst consequences of the opioid epidemic of any population in the United States. Indeed, American Indians have suffered the highest per capita rate of opioid overdoses.”
Principal Chief Richard G. Sneed said, “We are grateful to have come this far, but the settlement is a drop in the bucket in relation to the size of the continuing problem. The EBCI will continue to fight for the health and well-being of our people and our region.”
Michael McConnell, EBCI attorney general, related that the settlement announcement came on Feb. 1 in a telephone conference by Judge Dan A. Polster, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. He noted that the EBCI has been a plaintiff in a MDL (multidistrict litigation).
McConnell said, “The MDL consolidated the claims of approximately 3,000 individual plaintiffs, consisting largely of city and county governments, tribal governments, hospitals, and personal injury victims, among others. When federal lawsuits have this many plaintiffs and defendants from all different parts of the country, the federal court organizes them into a special category, or MDL…”
He added, “The settlement will settle all filed and potential tribal opioid-related claims against the defendants. All federally recognized tribes and Alaska tribal health organizations are eligible to participate in the proposed settlements and need not file a lawsuit in order to be participate.”
McConnell said settlement funds are to be used by tribes for “opioid abatement purposes” and he noted, “The settlement is an historic achievement. It is the first major settlement of nationwide mass tort litigation to include tribes as a separate category of plaintiffs based on their sovereign governmental status.”
Several noted leaders in Indian Country have been appointed by Judge Polster to serve as directors of the tribal settlement funds including: Kevin Washburn (Chickasaw Nation), former assistant secretary for Indian Affairs; Mary Smith (Cherokee Nation), former acting director of the Indian Health Service; and Kathy Hopinkah Hannan (Ho-Chunk Nation), chair of the board of trustees for the National Museum of the American Indian.
Johnson & Johnson said in a statement on Feb. 1, “The $150 million settlement with the tribes is consistent with the framework of the previously announced nationwide opioid settlement agreement. The dollar amount to be received by the tribes has been deducted from the all-in settlement amount. This settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing and the Company will continue to defend against any litigation that the final agreement does not resolve.”
The statement continued, “The Company’s actions relating to the marketing and promotion of important prescription opioid medications were appropriate and responsible. DURAGESIC, NUCYNTA, and NUCYNTA ER accounted for less than one percent of total opioid prescriptions in the U.S. since launch. The Company no longer sells prescription opioid medications in the United States as part of our ongoing efforts to focus on transformational innovation and serving unmet patient needs.”
According to a CDC report that looked at American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) living in Washington state, “During 2013-15, mortality rates among AI/AN were 2.7 and 4.1 times higher than rates among whites for total drug- and opioid-involved overdoses and heroin-involved overdoses, respectively.”
The report added, “AI/AN communities experience high rates of physical, emotional, and historical trauma and significant socio-economic disparities, which might contribute to higher rates of drug use in these communities.”
In a separate case, the Cherokee Nation agreed to a $75 million settlement in September 2021 to be paid over six years by AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson. Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said at that time, “Today’s settlement will make an important contribution to addressing the opioid crisis in the Cherokee Nation Reservation; a crisis that has disproportionately and negatively affected many of our citizens. This settlement will enable us to increase our investments in mental health treatment facilities and other programs to help our people recover.”
