Opioid settlement payments to state and local governments can now be tracked with this online tool

KFF Health News tool, from BrownGreer data

Beginning in 2022, state and local governments started receiving opioid settlement funds from companies that made, sold or distributed prescription opioids. Tracking the flow of opioid money into communities can now be done using a new online database from KFF Health News, report Aneri Pattani, Lydia Zuraw and Holly K. Hacker. "Determining how much money has arrived is the first step in assessing whether the settlements will make a dent in the nation’s addiction crisis."

The database reflects only the largest settlement so far, $26 billion to be paid by pharmaceutical distributors AmerisourceBergen (now called Cencora), Cardinal Health and McKesson, as well as opioid manufacturer Janssen (now known as Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine). The $26 billion will be paid over two decades, KFF News reports. "As of late February 2024, more than $4.3 billion had landed in government coffers."

This first piece does not include settlements with other drug manufacturers and retailers, such as Walmart, Walgreens and CVS. Data from these companies will be added in July, according to BrownGreer, the settlement firm that gets the money and makes the payments. It is not handling some additional settlements, such as the agreement between Kentucky and four Midwestern states with regional supermarket chain Meijer.

Other settlements, including with OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, are pending.