Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a settlement last Thursday that would resolve ongoing investigations into Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for their involvement and contributions to the ongoing opioid epidemic. The opioid settlement with Endo is supposed to “track the terms of the Global Prescription Opioid Litigation Settlement Agreement that was announced on July 23, 2021.”
Per the terms of the settlement, Endo will pay the Texas State Qualified Settlement Fund $63 million. Endo will join Johnson & Johnson and McKinsey as the third opioid settlement Attorney General Paxton has secured for the state of Texas. The press release by the Attorney General’s office noted that they expect to receive up to $1.2 billion in future opioid settlements.
Attorney General Paxton also claimed that the recent Endo settlement is a result of his office “aggressively working to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for their deceptive marketing of highly-addictive pain pills,” which has contributed to the opioid epidemic and devastated victims and families across the state. Many lawsuits have been filed against pharmacy chains, drug distributors, and drug makers in recent years as an attempt to ease the current opioid crisis in the United States, which has allegedly been responsible for countless deaths over the past two decades.
The monetary and injunctive relief involved in the settlement with Endo will effectively resolve current investigations that the Attorney General’s office has into the pharmaceutical company.
Endo was represented by Mayer Brown LLP and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in the litigation.