Jeff Chiu/AP Photo
Leading drug distributor McKesson Corporation, along with AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health, is trying to cut a settlement deal with lawmakers over its contribution to the nation’s opioid crisis.
If an industry commits the foulest crimes, even what is effectively mass murder, you will inevitably hear the term “global settlement.” One headline dollar amount, shared among the leading industry players, absolves them of blame for the carnage they’ve generated. That’s where we’re headed with the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history.
Law enforcers have plotted an emerging deal with two major opioid manufacturers, Johnson & Johnson and Teva, as well as the leading drug distributors (McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health, three obscure companies that are all in the top 16 of the Fortune 500, so lucrative is their business). It would settle over 2,300 lawsuits brought by cities, counties, and states, for somewhere between $45 billion and $55 billion. Around half of this would be cash that localities could use at their discretion to fight the epidemic, and another half would go toward donated “addiction-treatment drugs, supplies, and delivery services.”
I missed the part where top executives get jail time, because it’s not there.
Considering that the whole point is to fight the epidemic, donating supplies sounds like a good way to unload inventory that will ideally become less in-demand in the future. It’s unclear whether this is a one-time cost or over a number of years, and how much private attorneys working for local governments will siphon out. And of course, we have an opioid crisis that will likely cost $188 billion just this year, and some of the biggest companies responsible want to kick in one-third of that, total, to get off the hook.
More critically, these global settlements put experienced corporate attorneys up against law enforcement officials who just want a big number they can tout at a podium. If the devil’s in the details, the devil always wins. See the National Mortgage Settlement, which government officials claimed would reduce loan balances for a million struggling homeowners; in the end the number was 83,000, 90 percent below what was promised.
Anything that doesn’t hold individuals accountable or fundamentally restructure pharmaceutical markets only invites some other addictive drug to move through the supply chain. Distributors shipped billions of opioid pills because it was profitable, and there was every incentive for them not to raise red flags. A more fragmented market may have handled things differently, but governments cower in the face of giants. When drug pushers wear business suits, and don’t sit out on the street corner selling the products, they don’t have to face the same punishment.
LINKS TO MY STORIES
Michael Bloomberg is not going to be president because he has no constituency.
The robots aren’t coming for our jobs, the oligarchs are.
(Note: Paul Krugman backed me up on this.)
Joe Biden claims he “got votes” for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but we can’t find anyone involved in the process who remembers any detail of that.*
* That last one is a collaboration with Ryan Grim and The Intercept. By the way, today is the last day to donate $50 or more to the Prospect and get a signed copy of Ryan’s book.
ALSO AT THE PROSPECT
Matt Stoller on the rise and fall of Andrew Mellon (an excerpt from his new book Goliath).
Amanda Frost on Trump’s war on naturalized citizens.
Harold Meyerson on Bernie going full socialist.
Jonathan Guyer on the 2020 foreign-policy primary.
Alex Sammon on private utility company mergers.
Mike Elk on the mixed-bag GM/UAW contract deal.
YES, I KNOW
Rick Perry’s out. And Mulvaney came out and admitted quid pro quo. And then walked it back. And the G7’s at Doral, a massive example of Trump self-dealing. And there’s a cease-fire (read: abandonment of territory) in Syria. Except there isn’t.
That all happened Thursday.
SHARING THE WEALTH
China tried to get the Houston Rockets GM fired for his Hong Kong tweet. (NYTimes)
For-profit hospitals leading the fight against Medicare for All. (The Intercept)
Amazon increasingly running U.S. elections now. (CNBC)
Amazon charged brands up to $2 million to get into their holiday gift guide. We used to call this payola. (Bloomberg)
Are people getting rich from inside information from Trump? My money’s on Carl Icahn. (Vanity Fair)
Great profile of Katie Porter, “the next Elizabeth Warren.” (American Banker)
The Trump legacy will be all the unqualified hack lifetime judges. (New York Mag)
Facebook courting conservatives. (Politico)
Microsoft’s anti-competitive tactics in chat products. (Recode)
We have a Brexit deal; whether it passes is another matter. (NYTimes)
Over 700 doctors paid over $1 million by drug and medical device companies. (ProPublica)
Five inches of blood in an Iowa family’s basement; they live near a slaughterhouse. (USA Today)
