The city of Baltimore won another $80 million in opioid restitution funds through a settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals on Monday.
The win brings the total amount the city will receive from opioid drug manufacturers to more than $322 million.
Teva will pay $35 million upfront and the rest of the $45 million by July 2025.
“This settlement marks another major victory for the City of Baltimore and further validates our decision to carry on in the fight to hold these companies accountable,” said Mayor Brandon Scott. “Nothing can undo the harm that they caused or bring back the lives lost, but we are determined to implement these resources in a way that helps move our city’s fight against this epidemic forward. It is my hope that these funds will help save lives and ensure that fewer families and communities have to endure the pain of losing loved ones to opioid overdose.”
Baltimore independently sued opioid manufacturers instead of signing onto a global settlement. If the city signed onto the settlement it would have only received $11 million over 13 years.
The city previously settled with Allergan, CVS and Cardinal Health.
Baltimore is still in litigation with a handful of other entities, including Purdue Pharma. That case is set to go to trial on Sept. 16.
Under the terms of the Teva settlement, the city will allocate $5 million for education and outreach efforts about the 988 mental health hotline, $3 million to Penn North Recovery Center and $2 million to BMore Power, a community outreach program focused on drug overdose.
As the local behavioral health authority for Baltimore City, Behavioral Health System Baltimore (BHSB) partners with Baltimore City to ensure the city has a full range of mental health and substance use services, including overdose prevention resources and the 988 Helpline,” Adrienne Breidenstine, a spokeswoman for BHSB, said in a statement. “This new funding will allow Bmore POWER to expand its reach and connect with more people who use drugs and offer tools and information to ensure their safety and save lives in our communities.”
Last month, Scott signed an executive order building a governance structure around how to use the money brought in through the settlements.
The city will initially appropriate $20 million to the health department and $42 million to 12 organizations focused on substance abuse and overdose prevention like Tuerk House and Helping Up Mission.
“It isn’t enough to win the funds — we need to put them to work,” Scott said. “This executive order will ensure that restitution funds are governed responsibly, transparently, and effectively in order to support our residents and communities most affected by the epidemic — not just during this administration, but for years to come.”
With the executive order, the city states that the funds will be used purely for substance abuse and overdose programs and services. That includes treatment, recovery, harm reduction and social determinants to health associated with the opioid epidemic. The order also sanctions the use of the funds for infrastructure relating to those programs and their evaluation.
The money can go to both governmental and private organizations for those purposes.
The city will create an opioid restitution advisory board to recommend the best way to spend those funds.
The city is also creating a trust fund to stash the money it wins. A city official said it will be used much like a university endowment where the funds will be invested and the interest will be used for future programs.
However, to ensure the money is used, the executive order mandates that at least 5% of the funds are spent annually on programs and services.
The city is creating two new positions, an executive director of overdose response and an opioid restitution program manager to directly oversee programs and grants.
