A company with ties to DuPont’s former pharmaceutical operations has settled northern Ohio cases over its opioid practices.
Endo International announced that its subsidiaries Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., Endo Health Solutions Inc., Par Pharmaceutical, Inc., and Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. reached a settlement in principle with the County of Cuyahoga, Ohio, the County of Summit, Ohio and certain related persons in connection with certain lawsuits in northern Ohio.
Under the settlement in principle, Endo will pay a total sum of $10 million and will provide up to $1 million of its Vasostrict and Adrenalin products free of charge, all to be allocated by and between the two counties in their sole discretion.
In the event of a comprehensive resolution of government-related opioid claims, the company has agreed that the two plaintiff counties will receive the value they would have received under such resolution less the total value of the settlement in principle.
The settlement will include no admission of wrongdoing, fault or liability.
Matthew J. Maletta, Endo’s executive vice president and chief legal officer, stated that “Endo is pleased to have reached a resolution in principle of the Track 1 Cases, which are currently scheduled to go to trial in October 2019. This is a favorable outcome for the Company. As context, the cash portion of the settlement approximates the estimated cost to Endo of proceeding through trial while the product portion of the settlement illustrates the importance of Endo’s critical care products. It is important to note that the value of the settlement should not be extrapolated to any other opioid- related cases or claims.”
Endo, a longtime maker of pain medications, was sold in the 1990s by DuPont to a group of managers and investors led by Carol Ammon. She retired more than a decade ago and went on to become a major philanthropist in Delaware.
Endo was headquartered for years in the Concordville-Chadds Ford area, but later changed its corporate domicile to Ireland with its U.S. headquarters in Malvern.
Endo is one of the companies involved in litigation over opioid sales practices, with plaintiffs claiming the company and its competitors knew its sales far exceeded legitimate demand.
