This post is an update from our earlier blog post on the bellwether federal opioids trial in the Northern District of Ohio.  Just hours prior to the start of the trial in a consolidated case involving two plaintiff counties in Ohio, all of the remaining defendants in the case, except Walgreens, reached a settlement.  In the settlement, distributors, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen (distributors of approximately 90% of all prescription medications) will pay $215M to Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in Ohio.  A manufacturer, Teva, will pay $20M in cash over three years and will donate $25M worth of Suboxone, an addiction treatment medication.  Several manufacturers who were originally named defendants in these two consolidated cases previously settled out of the cases.  Judge Polster, the federal judge who has overseen the multi-district litigation (“MDL”), announced that Walgreens would face a separate trial focusing on its role as a dispenser.  There are more than 2,000 cases filed in the MDL by states, counties, cities and tribes which Judge Polster has been overseeing for more than two years.  The remaining cases involve manufacturers, distributors and large pharmacy chains.  Lawyers involved in the cases have expressed hope that the recent settlement could encourage other cases in the MDL to settle as well, although one of the most significant hurdles has been a dispute about how any settlement money would be distributed among the plaintiffs, as well as who would control the use of the settlement funds going forward.