Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has reached a settlement worth $225 million to resolve claims the drugmaker fueled an opioid epidemic in Texas by improperly marketing addictive pain medications, the state's attorney general said yesterday, Reuters reported. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Teva agreed to pay $150 million over 15 years and provide $75 million worth of generic Narcan, a medication used to counter the effects of opioid overdoses. The deal is the largest Teva has struck in the more than 3,500 lawsuits it faces seeking to hold it and other drug companies responsible for an opioid abuse epidemic that led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths over the last two decades nationally. The Israeli drugmaker previously settled with Oklahoma and Louisiana. Teva did not admit wrongdoing as part of Monday's settlement. Teva has long sought to resolve the thousands of opioid lawsuits by state, counties and municipalities it faces, offering in 2019 to donate $23 billion in opioid addiction treatment drugs and pay $250 million over 10 years. Attorneys general from four states, including Texas, negotiated that proposal with Teva. But no nationwide settlement agreement ultimately resulted after lawyers for some of the plaintiffs questioned the true value of the drugs.
