NEW YORK: A group of pharmaceutical companies and distributors agreed to pay $590 million to settle lawsuits connected to opioid addiction among Native American tribe members, according to a US court filing released Tuesday.
The agreement is the latest amid a deluge of litigation spawned by the US opioid crisis, which has claimed more than 500,000 lives over the last 20 years and ensnared some of the largest firms in the world of American medicine.
Pharmaceutical companies McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health had already struck a separate deal with the Cherokee tribe last September for $75 million.
According to documents filed in an Ohio…
