New York, Drug Distributors Reach $1.18 Billion Opioid Settlement as National Deal Looms

New York, Drug Distributors Reach $1.18 Billion Opioid Settlement as National Deal Looms
Tablets of the opioid-based Hydrocodone at a pharmacy in Portsmouth, Ohio, on June 21, 2017. Bryan Woolston/Reuters
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NEW YORK—The three largest U.S. drug distributors agreed mid-trial to pay up to $1.18 billion to settle claims by New York state and two of its biggest counties over their role in the nationwide opioid epidemic, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday.

McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc and AmerisourceBergen Corp settled as state attorneys general prepare to announce as soon as this week a landmark $26 billion deal with the distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson resolving cases nationwide.