Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said he has finalized agreements with CVS and Walgreens to bring the national amount from investigations and litigation against the pharmaceutical industry for its role in the opioid crisis to more than $50 billion. Under today’s agreements, CVS will pay $5 billion and Walgreens will pay $5.7 billion.

“Today is another step forward in our fight to combat the opioid crisis,” said Landry, who helped lead the negotiations along with the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Texas.

“Across our State, too many families and friends have been broken by the opioid epidemic,” Landry said. “While we can never bring back their loved ones who died, we can and will continue to hold accountable those that created and fueled this crisis – forcing them to pay for treatment and prevention in our communities.”

In addition to the financial settlement, CVS and Walgreens have agreed to court-ordered injunctive relief that requires the pharmacies to monitor, report, and share data about suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions. This court-ordered injunctive relief will help ensure a crisis like this does not happen again.

The terms of this agreement will now go to the states for their review. Each state will have until the end of 2022 to join, after which the agreements will go to local governments around the country for sign-on during the first quarter of 2023. Nearly all of the settlement funds must be used to remediate the opioid crisis, including prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services.

The payments are structured to ensure critical support in early years as well as sustained resources over time. CVS’s payments will be spread over 10 years, and Walgreens’ payments will be spread over 15 years. If there is sufficient sign-on, payments will begin during the second half of 2023.