Signaling continued success in their ongoing opioid litigation, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the City of Baltimore announced they have reached a $152.5 million settlement with Cardinal Health to resolve the City’s claims against Cardinal related to its role in fueling the worst opioid epidemic in the nation. Cardinal will pay the entire $152.5 million settlement amount this year. The settlement follows the Baltimore City Circuit Court’s rulings yesterday that allowed the City’s case to proceed to trial.
The City’s deal with Cardinal is the third settlement it has announced related to its opioid litigation, following a $45 million settlement with Allergan earlier this summer and a $45 million settlement with CVS just last week. The City has now received a total of $242.5 million in settlements, and its case proceeds to trial on September 16 against the five remaining defendant groups, providing an opportunity for further recoveries.
The City’s settlement with Cardinal Health, one of the three largest opioid distributors in Baltimore, is an unprecedented recovery in nationwide opioid litigation. In 2021, Cardinal Health and three other companies (McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson) reached a global settlement with nearly every other state, county, and city in America. Had Baltimore joined that settlement, it would have received less than $70 million spread over two decades from those companies. Under this settlement, with just one of those four defendants, the City has received over twice that amount, deliverable within just four months. The City has now received more than double the total amount it would have received from all available global settlements with any opioid defendant.
“We have said from the beginning that we are committed to do the right thing, not the popular thing or the easy thing – and these settlements are proof that our decision to reject the global settlements and carry on this fight was the right one,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “The City and our extraordinary outside counsel built an overwhelming case against the opioid companies, and we have recovered vastly more resources than we would have under the global settlements. As our City and partners continue our daily work combatting the impacts of Baltimore’s opioid epidemic that these manufacturers and distributors caused, the resources delivered by these settlements will have a transformative impact on our work.”
“I am proud of the work the City’s legal team has done during the past several years to build this incredible case, and we will continue to work to provide justice to the people of Baltimore and hold the opioid companies accountable for the significant harms they caused in this city,” said Ebony Thompson, Baltimore City Solicitor.
The City has committed to using its recovery from Cardinal “solely for opioid remediation” and to providing recovery funds to various substance use treatment centers and community organizations throughout Baltimore: $5 million for Tuerk House, Inc., $5 million for Helping Up Mission; $3 million for Baltimore Safe Haven; $3 million for HOPE Safe Haven; $2 million for More Than a Shop; $1 million for Marian House; and $1 million for Turnaround Tuesday. The City has made these initial allocations to help bring immediate resources to addressing the crisis. The City’s investments will build upon the success it is already experiencing in combating the opioid epidemic, as detailed in a report released this week by the Maryland Office of Overdose Response.
“We continue to be proud to partner with Mayor Scott and the City of Baltimore to fight this deadly epidemic and bring justice to everyone affected by it,” said Susman Godfrey Partner Bill Carmody, who is leading the outside legal team on this matter.
He is joined by Susman Godfrey attorneys Seth Ard, Sy Polky, Michael Kelso, Rocco Magni, Adam Carlis, Cory Buland, Geng Chen, Krisina Zuniga, Max Straus, Betsy Aronson, Katherine Drews, Jeff Melsheimer, and Tom Boardman. Sara Gross and Thomas Webb of the Baltimore City Department of Law also represent the City in this case.
The case is Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., 24-C-18-000515 in the Circuit Court of Maryland for Baltimore City.
