Says, ‘In Arkansas, we will receive $216 million to fight the opioid crisis’

LITTLE ROCK, AR - Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced today the final approval of the $26 billion opioid agreement with the nation’s three major pharmaceutical distributors – Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen – as well as Johnson & Johnson. Upon finalization of the agreement, the companies will begin releasing funds to a national administrator on April 2, 2022. Those funds will then be allocated to state and local governments during the second quarter of 2022.  

“These companies have played a major part in the creation of the opioid epidemic across this nation,” said Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. “In Arkansas, we will receive $216 million to fight the opioid crisis that has impacted nearly every community.”

In October 2021, Attorney General Rutledge announced the Arkansas Opioids Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement. The agreement clarifies the allocation and use of $216 million in the opioid manufacturers and distributors settlement. The MOU agreement states each party – cities, counties and state – will receive one-third of the funds that will be used to support treatment, recovery, harm reduction, and other strategies to address the opioid epidemic. 

On a national level, the agreement marks the culmination of three years of negotiations to resolve more than 4,000 claims of state and local governments across the country. It is the second largest multistate agreement in U.S. history, second only to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Fifty-two states and territories have signed on to the agreement.

In addition to providing the funds, Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen will be required to: 

• Establish a centralized, independent clearinghouse to provide state regulators with aggregated data regarding where and how often their drugs are being sold, eliminating blind spots in the current systems used by distributors.

• Use data-driven systems to detect suspicious opioid orders from customer pharmacies.

• Terminate customer pharmacies’ ability to receive shipments, and report those companies to state regulators, when they show certain signs of diversion.

• Report and prevent the shipping of suspicious opioid orders.

• Prohibit sales staff from influencing decisions related to identifying suspicious opioid orders.

• Require senior corporate officials to engage in regular oversight of anti-diversion efforts.

Johnson & Johnson will be required to: 

• Stop selling opioids.

• Not fund or provide grants to third parties for the purpose of promoting opioids.

• Not lobby policymakers concerning activities related to opioids.

• Share clinical trial data under the Yale University Open Data Access Project.

Additional data regarding the impact that the opioid epidemic has had on Arkansas may be found here.