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CLEVELAND — The three largest U.S. drug distributors have agreed to pay $300 million to resolve claims by health insurers and benefit plans that they helped fuel the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic, according to court papers filed on Friday.
The proposed class action settlement with McKesson Corp, Cencora Inc and Cardinal Health Inc was disclosed in a filing in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, and requires a judge's approval.
Those companies had previously agreed to pay $21 billion to resolve claims by state and local governments accusing them of having lax controls that allowed massive amounts of addictive painkillers to be diverted into illegal channels.
The distributors did not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The $300 million payment will be divided among the companies, with McKesson paying 38.1%, Cardinal Health and Cencora paying 30.9% and 31%, respectively.
