Teva Pharmaceutical shares surge after announcing global opioid settlement

FAN Editor

Teva Pharmaceutical shares surged Monday after announcing a $23 billion settlement that would resolve all of its allegations that it helped fuel the nation’s opioid crisis.

The stock rose as much as 18% in intraday trading. Mallinckrodt and Endo International also moved higher.

Under that deal, Teva would donate $23 billion in opioid addiction treatment drugs and pay $250 million over 10 years. The company said there is an agreement in principle with a group of attorneys general from North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and other defendants.

“The company is pleased to positively contribute to solving the nationwide opioid epidemic,” the company in a statement. “Teva has consistently committed to complying with all laws and regulations regarding its manufacture and sale of opioids.

Teva, the world’s largest generic drugmaker, also announced a settlement with two Ohio counties that would provide opioid addiction treatment for three years. Neither settlement includes an admission of liability.

More than 2,000 counties, cities and states have sued more than a dozen drug companies, distributors and pharmacies, alleging the industry helped create the nation’s opioid epidemic. A ‘bellwether” trial was set to begin this week involving two Ohio counties. But four drug companies, including Teva, reached a last-minute deal.

Some legal scholars have compared the massive opioid litigation to the tobacco master settlement agreement in the 1990s.

In August, an Oklahoma judge ruled Johnson & Johnson in the state’s opioid suit, forcing it to pay a total $572 million. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma , collapsing under the weight of thousands of lawsuits.

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