Delaware’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission votes to receive a monetary settlement from drug company Teva for its role in the opioid crisis.
Delaware entered into a nationwide settlement with the drug company last year. The state is slated to receive $15.8 million from Teva over a 13-year period for opioid abatement.
As part of the agreement, Deputy Attorney General Jason Staib says Delaware could receive additional cash payments every two years over a 10-year period, amounting to an additional $1.27 million, or accept distributions of generic Narcan.
“For the first option period, covering the first two years, the choice for Delaware is between taking delivery of approximately $1.3 million in generic Narcan," Staib says. "That's 10,400 kits priced at $125 per kit, or electing to receive the first cash payment of $254,000.”
Staib says most other states in the settlement are electing to receive cash payments, and Delaware’s commission agreed. Attorney General Kathy Jennings says $125 per kit is “grossly overstating the value of Narcan.”
Public Outreach and Community Input SubCommittee Chair Tammy Anderson says the product option is egregious.
“Naughty pharmaceutical companies will not only price gauge those of us who are working in agencies to try and remedy a problem," Anderson says. "But also to move the competition for the product in their direction, and to give them some goodwill for helping to solve the problem in the process, let's not forget what this company did.”
Additionally, Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Director Joanna Champney says the division already has $1.7 million in grants set aside for purchasing Narcan, which at the market price of $46.36 for a two-pack, would cover around 20,000 kits.
Other committee members note Teva does not have a monopoly on narcan, and the state can take their business elsewhere to purchase it.
