After years of negotiations, two proposed nationwide settlement agreements ("Settlements") have been reached that would resolve all opioid litigation brought by states and local political subdivisions against the three largest pharmaceutical distributors, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen ("Distributors"), and one manufacturer, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and its parent company Johnson & Johnson (collectively, "Janssen").

The proposed Settlements require the Distributors and Janssen to pay billions of dollars to abate the opioid epidemic. Specifically, the Settlements require the Distributors to pay up to $21 billion over 18 years and Janssen to pay up to $5 billion over no more than 9 years, for a total of $26 billion (the "Settlement Amount"). Of the Settlement Amount, approximately $22.7 billion is earmarked for use by participating states and subdivisions to remediate and abate the impacts of the opioid crisis.

The Settlements also contain injunctive relief provisions governing the opioid marketing, sale and distribution practices at the heart of the states' and subdivisions' lawsuits and further require the Distributors to implement additional safeguards to prevent diversion of prescription opioids.

Each of the proposed Settlements has two key participation steps. First, each state decides whether to participate in the Settlements. Michigan has joined both settlements. Second, the subdivisions within each participating state must then decide whether to participate in the Settlements. Generally, the more subdivisions that participate, the greater the amount of funds that flow to that state and its participating subdivisions. Any subdivision that does not participate cannot directly share in any of the settlement funds, even if the subdivision's state is settling and other participating subdivisions are sharing in settlement funds.

In order to participate in the settlements, a municipality must “opt in” by January 2, 2022.