opioid lawsuit

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and Lee Health said they are not “subordinate” to the attorney general, as they were created by the Legislature.

The deal in principle would rank among the larger ones in a yearslong trend of companies settling complicated lawsuits over the toll from an addiction and overdose epidemic. That includes a $117 million settlement with Florida announced in March.

The lawsuit accused them of causing a health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in one West Virginia county ravaged by opioid addiction.

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s lawsuit contends five hospital districts, by pursuing separate claims against pharmaceutical industry companies, are jeopardizing settlements her office has reached.

The lawsuit centers on settlements the attorney general's office reached with companies that manufacture, distribute or sell opioids — and similar lawsuits that the hospital systems and school board have filed.

A federal judge has overturned a bankruptcy settlement worth more than $4 billion that granted immunity from opioid lawsuits to members of the family who owns the company that makes OxyContin.

The order came in a lawsuit filed by the Florida attorney general’s office in 2018 seeking unspecified damages against drug manufacturers, retailers and distributors.

The verdict in federal court comes as three of the country's largest pharmacy chains face thousands of lawsuits filed by communities across the U.S. The companies say they did nothing wrong dispensing huge quantities of opioids.

The New York attorney general says Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $230 million to settle claims that the pharmaceutical giant helped fuel the opioid crisis.

A bankruptcy judge cleared a plan for final vote by creditors of Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, that would release the Sacklers and their financial empire from liability for the opioid crisis.