Jury Awards Baltimore $266 Million in Damages After Opioid Trial

A jury has awarded the city of Baltimore $266 million in damages in its suit against pharmaceutical firms McKesson and AmerisourceBergen for their part in the city’s opioid epidemic.

With the jury award, the city has notched another win for its strategy of opting out of a national opioid settlement and pursuing opioid cases on its own. In 2021, Cardinal Health, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson reached a global settlement with nearly every other state including Maryland and municipalities.

But even before the jury award, Baltimore had obtained more than three times what it would have received under the global settlement by pursuing its own settlements with six opioid makers and distributors and going to trial against McKesson and AmerisourceBergen. Its case against Johnson & Johnson has been settled but the terms have not yet been released.

The $266 million jury award brings the city’s total restitution funds from its litigation to more than $668.5 million, which Mayor Brandon M. Scott called “a game-changing figure that will reshape our ability to confront this crisis in every part of our city.” He said the city will “put these funds to work to save lives and build a healthier Baltimore.”

In September, the city settled prior to trial with Walgreens for $45 million. That followed settlements with Allergan and CVS for $45 million each, Teva for $80 million, and Cardinal Health for $152.5 million, bringing the total of announced recoveries to $402.5 million before the jury award and the Johnson & Johnson deal.

The lawsuit alleges that major manufacturers spent billions to market their products as safe, effective pain relievers rather than as addictive pills meant for short-term use to treat acute pain. The city seeks to force the manufacturers and distributors of these opioids to assist in efforts abate the effects of this epidemic.

The suit claims that hundreds of Baltimore citizens continue to die every year of opioid overdoses, which is more than from homicides, while tens of thousands more suffer from the effects of opioid use disorders, including struggling to hold jobs and additional health problems.

More than 800,000 people died of opioid overdoses from 1999 through 2023, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We know that the work on these cases is not over, as we prepare for additional abatement proceedings in December,” Mayor Scott stated. “But today’s verdict brings us one step closer to addressing the harm inflicted on our community, honoring the lives of the loved ones we lost, and seeking justice and healing for our residents who have endured heartbreak throughout this epidemic.”

In March, the state of Maryland finalized opioid settlements with Teva, Allergan, Walmart, and Walgreens. Thoe settlements are expected to provide a total of $238 million to the state. The amounts per company are Teva, $70 million; Allergan, $38 million; Walmart, $55 million and Walgreens, $75 million.