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Endo’s Opioid Tab Could Hit $3 Billion Based on Tennessee Deal

  • Lopsided math of $35 million settlement masks threats ahead
  • Pact reflects pattern in litigation over painkiller scourge
     

Photographer: Tim Thompson/Bradel Images/Moment RF/Getty Images

Endo International Plc’s $35 million settlement of a multi-billion-dollar Tennessee opioid lawsuit spares the drugmaker a potentially disastrous blow but leaves other threats to the company in place and shows how the larger legal fight is evolving.

The agreement in principle announced Thursday -- one day after the mammoth deal that Johnson & Johnson and three drug distributors struck with U.S. state and local governments -- requires more than two dozen local governments to sign off.