The Cobb Commission on Tuesday approved another settlement agreement with companies in the ongoing national lawsuits over the opioid crisis.
The settlement with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan and retail pharmacies CVS, Walgreens and Walmart will total $15.2 million over the next five to 15 years through annual payments, county documents show.
As part of the settlement, manufacturers have agreed to strict limitations on how they market and distribute opioids, including a ban on lobbying and incentivizing employees based on the volume of opioid sales.
Pharmacies Walmart, CVS and Walgreens must change how they handle opioids with stricter processes and monitoring.
The money will go to a separate account and must be used for abatement and remediation of the opioid crisis. County commissioners will have to vote in the future on how to spend the funds.
In 2018, Cobb County pursued litigation along with several other government entities to hold opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers financially responsible for the opioid crisis, which hit the county hard with some of the highest overdose deaths in the state.
The new settlement is the third the county has received since 2021, and brings the total to $37.7 million. Other settlements include a $19 million agreement with three major opioid distributors and manufacturer Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and a $3.5 million deal with Rite Aid in 2022.
Ongoing litigation is still pending with Kroger and Publix, and Cobb entered another recently filed lawsuit against more than two dozen drug makers, pharmacies and prescription drug brokers, alleging that their role in the opioid crisis represents a public nuisance.
In 2017, the county had 116 opioid overdose deaths, the highest in the state, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health mortality database. Cobb ranked second behind Fulton County from 2018 through 2020. When the pandemic hit, opioid overdose deaths spiked to 115 in 2020 and 123 in 2021.
For more information about the litigation, go to nationalopioidsettlement.com
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