City joins second opioid settlement

GILLETTE (WNE) — Last week, the Gillette City Council voted to join the OneWyo II Opioid Settlement, which means more opioid money should be coming to Gillette.
 
Five companies have reached settlements regarding potential opioid litigation, including pharmacies Walmart, Walgreens and CVS, as well as pharmaceutical companies Allergan and Teva.
 
Their settlements include the following:
 
Allergan has agreed to a $2.37 billion settlement over seven years
Teva has agreed to pay $4.25 billion over 13 years
CVS has agreed to pay $5 billion over 10 years
Walgreens has agreed to pay $5.7 billion over 15 years
Walmart has agreed to pay $3.1 billion over six years
 
At this point it’s not known how much the city will receive from this settlement. This is the second opioid settlement the city is part of.
 
At the beginning of 2022, Wyoming joined a global class-action suit that led to a $26 billion settlement against pharmaceutical distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen are responsible for $18 billion over the course of 18 years, and Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson, will disburse $8 billion over 10 years.
 
The city received about $114,000 from the OneWyo I Opioid Settlement, but it has not yet figured out how to spend the money, although the city council has discussed it. 
 
The county has discussed joining this second opioid settlement. It has received nearly $300,000 from the first one.
 
This story was published on April 18, 2023.