The north view of the Manhattan skyline. REUTERS/Mike Segar
(Reuters) - U.K.-founded Allen & Overy is continuing to expand on both U.S. coasts, this time adding a litigator to its small intellectual property team in New York.
The firm said Thursday that Sapna Palla has joined as a partner in its IP litigation practice, making her the firm’s second IP partner in New York after Paul Keller rejoined the firm in March 2020 from Norton Rose Fulbright. Palla joins from Wiggin and Dana, where she led the firm’s life sciences IP litigation team for seven years, Allen & Overy said.
Statehouse News Bureau A significant portion of the settlement, of which about 4,000 entities are a part, will be put toward opioid treatment and prevention.
Ohio is one of several states that will share $26 billion as part of a national opioid abuse settlement.
The deal involves three distributors, Ohio-based Cardinal, McKesson and Amerisource Bergen, as well as drugmaker Johnson & Johnson. A substantial portion of the settlement will be spent on opioid treatment and prevention. Attorney Paul Geller says there are restrictions to ensure that.
“The main point is it will be used for those purposes. It won’t be used to fill potholes or to build libraries or to balance budgets, Geller said.
Updated Experts: Spend opioid settlement funds on fighting opioids
As a $26 billion settlement over the toll of opioids looms, some public health experts are citing the 1998 agreement with tobacco companies as a cautionary tale of runaway government spending and missed opportunities for saving more lives.
Mere fractions of the $200 billion-plus tobacco settlement have gone toward preventing smoking and helping people quit in many states. Instead, much of the money has helped to balance state budgets, lay fiber-optic cable and repair roads.
And while the settlement was a success in many ways smoking rates have dropped significantly cigarettes are still blamed for more than 480,000 American deaths a year.
Maine AG: $26 billion opioid settlement could bring âsignificant resourcesâ Share Updated: 10:02 PM EDT Jul 21, 2021 Terry Stackhouse Share Updated: 10:02 PM EDT Jul 21, 2021
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Show Transcript TERRY - WHAT S HE SAYING ABOUT THIS LANDMARK AGREEMENT? ? ?A-G AARON FREY SAYS HE S PLEASED WITH THE PROGRESS MADE TOWARD THIS SETTLEMENT. HE SAYS HIS OFFICE HAS WORKED HARD TO SECURE RELIEF FOR MAINE. HE SAID IN A STATEMENT, IN PART, THIS AGREEMENT STANDS TO YID EL SIGNIFICANT RESOURCE S, AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE THE STEPS NEEDED TO ENSURE THAT MAINE AND ITS COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES RECEI THE FULL BENEFIT OF THE SETTLEMENT. THIS AGREEMENT IS WITH DISTBURITORS AMERISOURCEBERGEN, CARDINAL HEALTH, AND MCKESSON AS WELL AS OPIOID MAKER JOHNSON AND JOHNSON. ATTORNEYS - HOLDING A PRS ES CONFERENCE THIS AFTERNOON SAYING FOR STATES AND MUNICIPALITIES RECEIVING MONEY - THERE S FLEXIBILITY IN HOW IT CAN BE SPENT. FOR EXAMP
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Under the deal, Johnson & Johnson would not produce any opioids for at least a decade.
This Aug. 29, 2018, file photo shows an arrangement of Oxycodone pills in New York. | AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
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The yearslong effort by state and local governments in the U.S. to force the pharmaceutical industry to help pay to fix a nationwide opioid addiction and overdose crisis took a major step forward Tuesday when lawyers for local governments announced they were on the verge of a $26 billion settlement with the nation’s three biggest drug distribution companies and the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.