For Immediate Release:
March 7, 2022
Contact: Jerri Mares — (505) 321-4372
Santa Fe, NM – Today, Attorney General Hector Balderas announced a deal to allocate opioid settlement funds to more than fifty communities throughout the State, securing more than $195.5 million from four opioid manufacturing and distribution companies. Johnson & Johnson, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson, will pay out these funds over the next 18 years, with a significant portion being paid by 2025.
“I am proud that cities and counties across the State will benefit from this historic settlement and are working together with my office to combat the opioid crisis that has decimated families in New Mexico.” said AG Balderas.
The allocation deal provides more than $107 million to local governments throughout the State and nearly $88 million to the State government itself, the majority of which is earmarked specifically for opioid abatement efforts. Counties and cities are encouraged to work together and with State health officials on collaborative solutions to the crisis. Expenditures will be subject to robust oversight and scrutiny, provided by the Office of the State Auditor.
The settlement, spearheaded by Brian McMath in the Office’s Consumer & Environmental Protection Division, resolves claims against four of the nearly twenty companies the State is pursuing in its opioid litigation. Litigation against the remaining defendant companies will continue, with trial set to begin in Santa Fe in September of this year.
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