Listen to this articleRALEIGH — Two nine-figure multistate settlements with companies tied to opioid abuse have been announced by the North Carolina Department of Justice.
The larger of the two is a $350 million national settlement with Publicis Health to resolve investigations into the global marketing and communications firm’s role in abuse of prescription opioids, a release from the department says.
The other is a $150 million settlement in principle with opioid manufacturer Hikma Pharmaceuticals, a second release says.
Publicis contributed to the problem by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids, the first release says. Court documents detail how Publicis acted as Purdue’s marketing agency for branded opioid drugs, including OxyContin.
As part of the settlement, Publicis also will disclose on a public website thousands of internal documents detailing its work for opioid companies like Purdue and will stop accepting client work related to opioid-based Schedule II or Schedule III controlled substances, the first release says.
As part of it settlement, Hikma will pay $150 million to participating states and localities, encompassing $115 million in cash and $35 million worth of opioid addiction treatment medication, the second release says. The final terms of the deal will be determined after states and local governments sign on. North Carolina’s state and local governments might receive about $4 million from the agreement.
Leading the Publicis settlement were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and. They were joined by the attorneys general from all other states, territories and the District of Columbia.
The Hikma settlement was negotiated by the attorneys general of New York, California, Delaware, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia in coordination with an executive committee consisting of the attorneys general of Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon.
More than 36,000 North Carolinians have died from a drug overdose between 2000 and 2022, the release about the Publicis settlement says.
