Viatris mentioned on Monday it might pay as much as $335 million over 9 years as a part of a nationwide settlement to resolve opioid-related claims towards the drugmaker.
Shares of the Pennsylvania-based firm, shaped by the merger of Mylan and Pfizer’s Upjohn enterprise in 2020, fell 3% in early buying and selling.
Viatris is amongst a number of drugmakers which have confronted lawsuits on claims over their position in concealing the dangers of addictive ache medication. The corporate sells opioid merchandise within the type of its painkiller Ultiva and the Fentanyl Transdermal System, which is a generic model of Johnson & Johnson’s branded fentanyl patch product, Duragesic.
In accordance with authorities knowledge, these lawsuits commenced within the early 2000s however have elevated in frequency and profile in recent times. The earliest fits towards opioid producers similar to Purdue Pharma had been private damage claims introduced on behalf of individuals with dependancy who overdosed.
In January, Purdue Pharma and its Sackler household house owners reached a $7.4 billion settlement to resolve 1000’s of lawsuits alleging that their ache remedy OxyContin brought on a widespread opioid dependancy disaster within the U.S.
Associated: Purdue Pharma, Sacklers Reach $7.4B National Opioid Settlement
The opioid litigation has already resulted in additional than $50 billion in settlements.
Opioid-related overdoses claimed greater than 80,000 lives in 2023 and has led to 700,000 deaths over the previous 20 years, in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
The U.S. Meals and Drug administration has accredited two naloxone-based nasal sprays — Emergent Biosolutions’ Narcan and Hurt Discount Therapeutics’ RiVive — for opioid overdose reversal.
Viatris additionally manufactures a generic injectable model of naloxone and is at present growing a novel supply methodology for meloxicam — a non-opioid ache remedy.
The drugmaker mentioned it might pay between $27.5 million and $40 million yearly towards state and native opioid initiatives as a part of the settlement, however that doesn’t represent an admission of wrongdoing or legal responsibility.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Tasim Zahid and Shilpi Majumdar)
