Drug giants in opioid compensation deal

Pharmaceutical companies are being pursued for peddling addictive opioids. The sums involved could be massive. Matthew Partridge reports.

Protesters demonstrate against the FDA's opioid prescription drug approval practices © Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock

Pharma firms are coughing up for the crisis
(Image credit: Protesters demonstrate against the FDA's opioid prescription drug approval practices © Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock)

There has been another "flurry of deals" over the opioid crisis, says Jan Hoffman in The New York Times. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as well as distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, have agreed to pay a total of $260m to two Ohio counties. The counties were aiming to hold the companies liable for the "epidemic of addiction" that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. Despite agreeing to settle, the companies continue to dispute that they delivered "highly suspicious quantities" of opioids without properly reporting them.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri