Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – The three largest U.S. drug distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:) have agreed to finalize a proposed $26 billion settlement resolving claims by states and local governments that they helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Distributors McKesson Corp (NYSE:), AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:) Corp, Cardinal Health Inc (NYSE:) along with J&J had until Friday to decide whether enough cities and counties nationally had opted to join the landmark settlement to justify moving forward with it.

It is expected that the deal resolves more than 3000 lawsuits, mainly filed by state and local government officials. These are seeking to hold these companies responsible for an opioid misuse crisis which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from overdose over the last 20 years.

Distributors on Friday stated there was sufficient participation to allow them to continue. Charles Lifland, an attorney for J&J, in a letter on Thursday reviewed by Reuters told lawyers for the states and local governments it also had determined there had been a “sufficient resolution” of the claims.

It is now possible for companies to make payments to their governments starting in April. Officials say that the money will be used by the government to finance treatment and other programs to address the current health crisis.

According to Josh Stein (North Carolina Attorney General), a leading settlement negotiator: “Because there is the money, people will live next year who otherwise wouldn’t have died.”

The lawsuits accuse the distributors of lax controls that allowed massive amounts of addictive painkillers to be diverted into illegal channels, and that drugmakers, including J&J, downplayed the risk of addiction when marketing the pain medicines.

The proposed settlement, which was first announced in July, calls for the distributors to pay up to $21 billion over 18 years and J&J to pay up to $5 billion over nine years.

The majority of states are now settling. All four companies still face claims in Alabama and Oklahoma as well as Washington, West Virginia, Washington, Washington, and Washington. New Hampshire declined to settle with J&J as well.

Peter Mougey was a Levin Papantonio plaintiffs’ lawyer who participated in negotiations. He said that over 7,000 local governments eventually opted for the settlement. He stated that participation in the state’s settlement is 99% or more. “Almost forty states have this,” he added.

This settlement is most likely to be the largest, but not the final, that has been reached in opioid litigation.

In bankruptcy proceedings, Purdue Pharma’s OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma presented a new settlement of up to $6 Billion that would address claims it fueled the outbreak. This was proposed by the family Sackler. Drugmaker Mallinckrodt (OTC) This month the bankruptcy court approved a settlement of $1.7 billion.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, an Israeli drugmaker (NYSE:) Ltd), and major pharmacie chains are still in litigation. Stein indicated that negotiations are continuing with the companies.