Carson City, NV – On May 16, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that Nevada has reached a settlement with CVS Pharmacy, Inc. regarding the company’s role in the opioid epidemic. The settlement, announced at a press conference in Carson City on Tuesday, will bring in a total of $151,858,772.26 in abatement money to Nevada. With this settlement, AG Ford has brought in a total gross amount of $606 million in opioid litigation-related monies to Nevada.
“My office will never stop fighting to hold accountable those companies and organizations that contributed to the crisis of the opioid epidemic,” said AG Ford. “The resources and funds that come to the state through our settlements will provide substantial help for Nevadans. I will work to do whatever I can to bolster the support we can offer the residents of our great state.”
The $151.9 million settlement with CVS will be split between the state and the signatories of the One Nevada Agreement. The state will receive $66,605,257.51, which will be placed in the Fund for Resilient Nevada, and the signatories of the One Nevada Agreement will receive $80,984,763.40, which will be used for abatement in their jurisdictions.
CVS negotiated in good faith and the settlement includes injunctive relief terms. In addition to the monetary relief, the settlement requires CVS to develop a Controlled Substance Dispensing Oversight Program, which includes a list of red flags for patients, prescriptions, and prescribers, that the program will maintain to stop possible misuse of opioids and the furtherance of the opioid epidemic.
Last year, the state, along with all Nevada counties and cities that currently have active litigation against opioid companies, came to an agreement on the intrastate allocation of funds from opioid-related recoveries. This One Nevada Agreement on Allocation of Opioid Recoveries provides a framework for how funds from any Nevada opioid-related settlement will be fairly and equitably allocated among the state and various local governmental entities and used to remediate the harms, impact and risks caused by the opioid epidemic in the state.
In early 2021, the Legislature created the Fund for a Resilient Nevada, which directs state opioid recoveries to fund evidence-based programs through the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. The law required the state to develop a State Needs Assessment which identifies the critical needs for attacking the impacts and effects of opioids throughout the entire state, and a State Plan for prioritizing funding for the needs identified in said assessment. The law also creates a mechanism for the state, counties and cities to work together in developing county needs assessments and county plans that complement the State Needs Assessment and State Plan, therefore maximizing the use of the money from recoveries.
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