Viatris has agreed to a settlement in which it will pay up to $335 million to resolve opioid-related claims to state and local governments, the Pittsburgh-based generics specialist said on Monday.
Viatris will pay between $27.5 million and $40 million annually over the next nine years. The funding will help support government efforts to address opioid-related issues, the company added.
“The company has agreed to this settlement to provide closure on these matters. This settlement is in no way an admission of wrongdoing or liability,” Viatris said.
In Viatris’ annual report filed (PDF) in February, the company said it was a defendant in more than 1,000 opioid-related cases, with the “vast majority” consolidated in a multidistrict litigation in a federal court in Ohio.
Viatris added that by the end of 2024 it had accrued approximately $270 million to resolve the cases and that the company had agreed to “pay Pfizer an amount equal to 57% of any losses actually incurred or suffered,” which arise from “third-party actions relating to the manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion or sale of opioids.”
Viatris was formed in 2020 as a merger between Mylan and Pfizer’s generics unit Upjohn.
In a 2021 filing (PDF), Viatris cited an IQVIA report which said that Mylan supplied approximately 1% of all opioid products in the U.S. from 2016 to 2020, while Upjohn did not sell any opioids. In 2020, 2.9% of Mylan’s revenue came from opioid sales.
Over the last several years, drugmakers have agreed to pay $57 billion in opioid settlements, including a landmark $26 billion deal in 2022 to resolve claims against Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors—AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.
Earlier this year, the Sacklers, the billionaire family behind now-bankrupt Purdue Pharma, agreed to a $7.4 billion opioid settlement. Other drugmakers that have come to opioid settlements include Teva, Mallinckrodt, Endo and Amneal.