Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022 | 8:34 p.m.
Nevada will receive almost $285.2 million to fight the opioid epidemic from a settlement with a drug manufacturer and distributors.
The money will come from a $26 billion multistate settlement with Johnson & Johnson and distributors AmerisourceBergen ($6.4 billion) Cardinal Health ($6.4 billion) and McKesson ($7.9 billion).
Initially, Nevada was one of eight states to opt out of the settlement reached in July, but Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford shifted course in saying this was the best course of action.
After all, 1,300 Nevadans died from opioids — not including those who died from overdoses or during emergency room visits — between January 2019 and October 2021, Ford said today in announcing the settlement.
“That number is too high,” Ford said. “One death is too high.”
Ford expects to receive the first payment of the $231.7 million from the opioid distributors in April, a second payment in July, and then payments every July thereafter for 17 years.
Funds will also come from a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to increase rural counties’ access to mitigation and health programs.
“The sooner we receive this funding, the sooner we can use it to save lives in our state,” Ford said.
Nevada will receive $53.5 million from Johnson & Johnson, the vast majority of which will be payable by the end of the year, Ford said. Johnson & Johnson will also be required to stop selling opioids and to refrain from funding or providing grants to third parties for opioid production.
Earlier this year, Nevada and all its counties and cities with active litigation against opioid companies came to an agreement on the allocation of funds from opioid-related recoveries, the statement says.
The agreement provides a framework for how funds from any opioid-related settlement will be allocated.
Gov. Steve Sisolak signed a bill into law in early 2021 that created the Fund for Resilient Nevada, which directs state opioid recoveries to fund evidence-based programs through the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, the statement says.
