KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – More opioid settlement money could soon be rolling into Kalamazoo County coffers.
The County Board will be asked to opt-in to a couple of new settlement deals this evening, with one being a $100-million settlement with Sandoz Pharmaceuticals and the other a new $8-billion dollar with Purdue Pharma, and their owners, the Sackler family.
The new deal with the Sackler’s was required after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the original deal last year to settle claims over the damage done by the drug oxycontin.
According to board chair Jen Strebs, that money will go directly into a fund they have set up for drug recovery and prevention programs.
“Bolstering the resources that we have to tackle that issue in an ongoing way.”
The county has until the end of the month to opt-in.
The check from Sandoz would be for about $417,000 and the Purdue settlement would bring in $1.3-million over 15 years, according to county memos.
County officials have agreed to pool the money from the various settlements and spread it out over the next 15 years, to fight substance abuse.
Nationally about $26-billion has been paid by various drug makers, distributors and drug store chains to settle lawsuits over the opioid crisis, which has caused an estimated half a million deaths in the last two decades, according to the World Health Organization.
Additional settlements are still being negotiated.
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