The federal government is demanding part of Oklahoma’s landmark $270 million settlement with drugmaker Purdue Pharma, a potential multimillion-dollar problem for the state, which has no access to the money, the Washington Post reported. In a June 12 letter to an Oklahoma Medicaid official, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it “is aware the state reached the aforementioned $270 million . . . settlement with the Purdue defendants” and “the federal government is entitled to a portion of that amount.” The settlement stemmed from Oklahoma’s 2017 lawsuit against three major pharmaceutical companies — Purdue, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Johnson & Johnson — that has become a closely watched first test of whether states and cities can force the drug industry to pay for the damage of the opioid epidemic. All of Purdue’s payments in the March 26 out-of-court settlement went to entities other than the state. It’s unclear how Oklahoma might pay anything to the federal government unless it digs into its own coffers.
