By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has reached a settlement worth $225 million to resolve claims the drugmaker fueled an opioid epidemic in Texas by improperly marketing addictive pain medications, the state’s attorney general said on Monday.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Teva agreed to pay $150 million over 15 years and provide $75 million worth of generic Narcan, a medication used to counter the effects of opioid overdoses.
The deal is the largest Teva has struck in the more than 3,500 lawsuits it faces seeking to hold it and other drug companies responsible for an opioid abuse epidemic that led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths over the last two decades.
“This agreement is not only another win for Texas, but a major step in the right direction to help people overcome opioid addiction,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.
The Israeli drugmaker did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Kåre Schultz, its chief executive, said in a statement it “remains in the best interest of Teva to put these cases behind us and continue to focus on the patients we serve every day.”
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Mark Porter and Philippa Fletcher)
