Baltimore settlement of opioid litigation with Cardinal Health brings total to $242.5 million

Baltimore City has reached a $152.5 million settlement with Cardinal Health to settle the city’s claims against the opioid distributor related to its role in the opioid epidemic.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced that Cardinal will pay the full $152.5 million settlement this year. The settlement follows Baltimore Circuit Court rulings allowing the city’s case to go to trial.

The city’s settlement 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 this week past. The city has now received a total of $242.5 million in settlements.

The case is not over. The matter is scheduled to go 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 Baltimore’s three largest opioid distributors, came after the city opted out of statewide 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.

If Baltimore had joined that settlement, it would have received less than $70 million spread over two decades from those companies. Under that settlement, with just one of the four defendants, the city received more than twice that amount. The city estimates it has now received more than double the total amount it would have received from all the global settlements available with any opioid defendant.

“We’ve said from the beginning that we decided to do the right thing, not the popular thing or the easy thing — and these settlements are proof that our decision to reject global settlements and continue this fight was the right one.” Scott said.

The lawsuit alleges that the major manufacturers spent billions to market their products as safe and effective pain relievers, rather than as addictive pills intended for short-term use to treat acute pain. The city is trying to force the manufacturers and distributors of these opioids to assist in efforts to mitigate the effects of this epidemic.

The lawsuit alleges that hundreds of Baltimoreans continue to die each year from opioid overdoses, more than from homicides, while tens of thousands more suffer from the effects of opioid use disorders, including the fight for to get a job and additional health problems.

The city pledged to use its recovery from Cardinal “for opioid remediation only” and to provide recovery funds to various substance abuse treatment centers and community organizations in Baltimore: $5 million to Tuerk House, Inc., $5 million for the Helping Up Mission; $3 million for Baltimore Safe Haven; $3 million for HOPE Safe Haven; $2 million for More Than a Store; 1 million dollars for Casa Marian; and $1 million for Turnaround Tuesday.

These investments will build on others made to combat the opioid epidemic, as explained in a report by the Maryland Office of Overdose Response.

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