On September 1, 2021, Purdue’s $4.5 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan won court approval. Among other things, the deal grants members of the Sackler family “sweeping legal immunity” and shields them from future opioid crisis-related suits. The list of objectors includes nine states and even a branch of the DOJ.

Though settlement puts an end to the “years or decades of Hobbesian hell” parties would’ve experienced in litigation without it, folks are dissatisfied. The Attorneys General for Washington and Connecticut intend to challenge the decision on appeal, and even the federal judge overseeing the proceedings — often criticized for his alleged pro-Sackler vibes — calls the deal a "bitter result" and states that he “would have expected a higher settlement.”

Just a few days before opening statements were scheduled to begin in New York’s widely anticipated jury trial, Johnson & Johnson has offered to settle with New York “and its participating subdivisions, including Nassau County and Suffolk County” for “up to” $263 million. Interestingly, the agreement “requires J&J to pay $30 million more in payments in the first year if the New York state executive chamber signs into law new legislation [SB 7194 / AB 6395B] that creates an opioid settlement fund, and other criteria are met. If that legislation — which passed the state Legislature unanimously — becomes law and all litigating subdivisions within New York sign on to today’s settlement, New York would be eligible to receive more than half of total payments, or more than $130 million, as soon as February 2022.”

Unlike “drug manufacturers and the largest distributors, which have expressed openness to paying billions to state and local governments for their alleged roles in fueling the opioid crisis,” the pharmacies continue to gun for trial. And Judge Polster, the federal judge overseeing the opioid multi-district litigation, recently selected five more cases for bellwether trials against the big pharmacy chains.

Oh, Purdue. Eighteen months after filing for bankruptcy in September 2019, Purdue Pharma has finally filed their reorganization plan with the court. They say that it’ll deliver $10 billion to opioid abatement programs; the details show that trusts will be funded less by cash, more by future sales of drugs like buprenorphine, naloxone, and — wait for it! — OxyContin.* Purdue says that “there is broad and strong support for the Plan”; half of states’ AGs responded by issuing a joint statement describing the company as a “criminal enterprise.”

Everybody is freaking out about the McKinsey settlement — a $641 million agreement between the global consulting firm and attorneys general in 48 states, DC, and five territories. (The AGs for Nevada, Washington, and West Virginia have settled separately.*) Among its notable qualities is the fact that at least $478 million of it must be paid to AGs within 60 days, which makes it an “unexpected first source of revenue” for the plaintiff states in the opioid litigation.

In another notable instance of pot calling kettle black drama,* the Department of Justice filed a civil complaint to allege that Walmart knowingly filled thousands of unlawful prescriptions. For the company’s alleged Controlled Substances Act violations — including its “ultralow rate of suspicious-order reporting” — the DOJ seeks injunctive relief and civil penalties in the “billions.”

Over the objections of 25 state Attorneys General, over two dozen congresspeople, and a group of nonconsenting states, Judge Robert Drain has approved Purdue’s DOJ-backed, landmark $8.3 billion settlement offer.

Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health are offering $26 billion to settle, which brings our “global” opioid settlement figure — including Teva’s standing $23.5 billion offer — to $49.5 billion. “Lawyers familiar with the talks said that at least 45 states regard the terms positively” (NYT), and that “only Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Washington State appear to oppose it” (Cleveland).

Walmart has filed suit against Attorney General William Barr, the Department of Justice, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the DEA’s acting head, Timothy Shea “in an attempt to strike a pre-emptive blow against what it said is an impending opioid-related civil lawsuit from the Justice Department” (WSJ). In a notable instance of pot calling kettle calling pot black drama,* the company asks a federal court, in essence, to declare that the DOJ is a hypocrite.

What is it with October? The Department of Justice announced today that it reached a $8.34 billion settlement with Purdue, which Massachusetts’ Attorney General Maura Healey, among others, hates. The deal doesn’t resolve Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy proceedings; on the contrary, Purdue’s bankruptcy offer is conditioned upon its resolution of federal charges. More details here.

Mallinckrodt, an opioid manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy. Their $1.6 billion settlement deal has the rare support of both states’ Attorneys General and attorneys for the localities in the MDL. More details + their placement in the greater “global” settlement scheme are available here.

On October 7, Reuters reported that Purdue Pharma and the DOJ are nearing completion of a deal that’d resolve all of the company’s federal investigations and criminal probes. Just one week later, 25 state Attorneys General sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr expressing their disapproval of the DOJ’s condition that Purdue “be preserved as a ‘public benefit company’ that will sell OxyContin on behalf of cities and state governments.” The mostly Democratic AG-signatories include those from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York.

Two federal opioid trials were delayed due to COVID-19. On October 5, Judge Polster postponed a Cleveland-based jury trial between Ohio plaintiffs Cuyahoga and Summit counties and pharmacy corporation defendants (“Track 1-B”). The trial, originally set for November 9, 2020, is now postponed indefinitely. On October 9, Judge Faber postponed a Charleston-based bench trial — between West Virginia plaintiffs City of Huntington and Cabell County and distributor defendants (“Track 2”) — from October 19, 2020 to January 4, 2021.

According to a truly fascinating report by The New Yorker, attorneys for Purdue and the Sackler family have been “quietly negotiating” “[b]ehind the scenes” with the Trump administration to “resolve all … federal investigations in an overarching settlement” before Election Day. The deal would charge none of Purdue’s executives individually and serve as a political boost to Trump’s candidacy “as another ‘promise kept’ to Trump’s base.”

The opioid litigation world received a bit of juicy news today. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling decertifying the federal opioid multi-district litigation’s novel negotiation class, which “[a]s envisioned” would have facilitated settlements with big pharma opioid companies by requiring proposed settlement offers to be approved by 75% of the 33,000 cities and counties participating as class members (Law360). The novel class was intended to provide localities a voice in global settlement negotiations, which have largely favored the demands of states’ Attorneys General.