NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Opioid manufacturers TEVA and AbbVie have agreed to a structure that will lead to a combined $6 Billion paid directly to state and local governments of communities impacted by the opioid epidemic, a case that was negotiated by Hunter Shkolnik along with fellow members of The National Prescription Opiate Litigation Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee Negotiating Team.
“This settlement not only brings needed help to communities…but importantly it shows that high level litigation is a vehicle to ensure that companies like Teva and AbbVie are held accountable for their actions,” he said in a Law.com article. “The Negotiating Team worked extremely hard to get a favorable structure for a settlement and get our communities the help they need,” added Shkolnik.
In a ground-breaking, December 2021 case that proceeded this global settlement, a jury found Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and five other companies responsible for causing a public nuisance in Nassau County, New York, by minimizing the addictiveness of opioids with misleading marketing. Mr. Shkolnik and the firm’s Opioid Trial Team represented Nassau County in that trial. It set the stage for the over $4 Billion settlement, which excludes New York trial cases.
At that time, The New York Times reported, “Hunter Shkolnik, a lawyer for Nassau County, said the evidence presented at trial needed to be revealed so that the public could understand the company’s role in the crisis.
“Videos of sales meetings where they laughed, and they joked about the use of drugs like fentanyl that kill people, and how they owned the market and they made the markets,” Mr. Shkolnik said. “This is what the public needs to see.”
The Negotiating Team and Hunter Shkolnik have stated that, “While we do not yet have a firm settlement agreement in place, we have established a framework for resolution and will continue to work collaboratively with the Attorney General working group as well as Allergan, Teva and the mediators in an effort to finalize terms. Many issues remain open with a lot of work left to do. During this time the litigation is still ongoing at full speed, moving ahead in several case tracks and a trial in New York for damages against Teva.”
Hunter Shkolnik represented Nassau County in Ground-Breaking TEVA 2021 Trial
Napoli Shkolnik, was first retained as lead counsel by Nassau County to assist in opioid litigation in 2017. Beginning in 2019, Hunter Shkolnik represented Nassau County in New York State’s massive statewide lawsuit to hold accountable the various manufacturers and distributors responsible for the opioid epidemic.
At its close in December 2021, the lawsuit yielded up to $1.7 billion from the defendants, including: a $263 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson; a $200 million settlement with former opioid manufacturer Allergan; a $50 million settlement with opioid manufacturers Endo and Par ($13.85 million of which will be awarded to Nassau County); and a $1.1 billion settlement agreement with McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, the three most prominent pharmaceutical distributors responsible for distributing and selling opioid painkillers. As part of the McKesson settlement, Nassau County was named a member of the National Enforcement Committee, which will oversee negotiations, outreach, and implementation of a potential National Global Settlement.
