- Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (NYSE:TEVA) and AbbVie Inc's (NYSE:ABBV) Allergan Plc are willing to pay more than $5 billion combined to resolve more than 3,500 lawsuits filed over highly addictive opioid painkillers, according to three people familiar with settlement talks.
- The people said the companies have been in mediation talks with plaintiffs for more than a year.
- While Teva and Allergan indicated a willingness to settle, no formal offer has been made or finalized, and talks are continuing, according to the people.
- Also Read: Rhode Island Announces $107M Opioid Settlements With Teva, Allergan: Reuters.
- It is not clear how much each company would pay or over how many years because they are still arguing with each other over an indemnity agreement Teva signed in 2016, Bloomberg reported.
- In 2016, Teva paid more than $40 billion to buy Allergan's line of generic opioid-based medicines.
- "Teva's 2.6 billion provision in 1Q for opioid litigation could fall short of the drugmaker's final costs to resolve nationwide lawsuits over the opioid-abuse epidemic," said Holly Froum, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst who follows opioid litigation.
- "Teva's final payout could exceed $3 billion, based on its settlements" with the states, she added.
- Price Action: TEVA shares are up 0.80% at $7.55, and ABBV shares are up 0.47% at $152.80 during the premarket session on the last check Wednesday.
