Baltimore’s Opioid Settlement With Cardinal Health Brings Total to $242.5 Million

The city of Baltimore has reached a $152.5 million settlement with Cardinal Health to resolve the city’s claims against the opioid distributor related to its role in the opioid epidemic.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced that Cardinal will pay the entire $152.5 million settlement amount this year. The settlement follows the Baltimore City Circuit Court’s rulings allowing the city’s case to proceed to trial.

The city’s settlement with Cardinal is the third settlement it has announced related to its opioid litigation, following a $45 million settlement with Allergan earlier this summer and a $45 million settlement with CVS just last week. The city has now received a total of $242.5 million in settlements.

The case it not over. The matter is scheduled to go to trial on September 16 against the five remaining defendant groups, providing an opportunity for further recoveries.

The city’s settlement with Cardinal Health, one of the three largest opioid distributors in Baltimore, came after the city chose not to participate in a nationwide opioid litigation. In 2021, Cardinal Health and three other companies — McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson— reached a global settlement with nearly every other state, county, and city in America.

Had Baltimore joined that settlement, it would have received less than $70 million spread over two decades from those companies. Under this settlement, with just one of those four defendants, the city has received over twice that amount. The city figures it has now received more than double the total amount it would have received from all available global settlements with any opioid defendant.

“We have said from the beginning that we are committed to do the right thing, not the popular thing or the easy thing – and these settlements are proof that our decision to reject the global settlements and carry on this fight was the right one,” said Scott.

The lawsuit alleges that major manufacturers spent billions to market their products as safe, effective pain relievers rather than as addictive pills meant for short-term use to treat acute pain. The city seeks to force the manufacturers and distributors of these opioids to assist in efforts abate the effects of this epidemic.

The suit claims that hundreds of Baltimore citizens continue to die every year of opioid overdoses, which is more than from homicides, while tens of thousands more suffer from the effects of opioid use disorders, including struggling to hold jobs and additional health problems.

The city has committed to using its recovery from Cardinal “solely for opioid remediation” and to providing recovery funds to various substance use treatment centers and community organizations throughout Baltimore: $5 million for Tuerk House, Inc., $5 million for Helping Up Mission; $3 million for Baltimore Safe Haven; $3 million for HOPE Safe Haven; $2 million for More Than a Shop; $1 million for Marian House; and $1 million for Turnaround Tuesday.

These investments will build upon others made to combat the opioid epidemic, as explained in a report by the Maryland Office of Overdose Response.