Midvale’s city council speedily joined a settlement against eight pharmaceutical companies on Oct. 7, the night before the participation deadline. The council also signed off on allowing the mayor to join future opioid settlements without requiring city council approval.

The nationwide lawsuit alleged the eight opioid drug manufacturers played a role in worsening the opioid epidemic.

From 2003 to 2022, 4,753 Utahns died from prescription opioids, according to data from the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. 

The pharmaceutical firms involved in the settlement are: Alvogen, Amneal, Apotex, Hikma, Indivior, Mylan, Sun and Zydus, according to the settlement participation forms sent to Midvale. The companies did not admit to any wrongdoing.

The case settled in July, with the pharmaceutical companies agreeing to pay out $720 million to the nine states that initiated the lawsuit. The agreement gave cities and counties until Oct. 8 to join the settlement, according to a press release from the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

Utah is poised to receive $8.8 million from the court-approved deal if all of the state’s cities and counties join the settlement. The settlement money is reserved to fund resources that combat the opioid epidemic, according to a city staff report submitted to the council.

“It’s our hope by participating in this settlement that even though Midvale City itself won't receive any of those funds, those who are providing services for opioid relief, including the state and Salt Lake County, will receive a bigger portion of those funds that they can use to benefit our residents,” Garret Wilcox, Midvale’s city attorney, said to the council Oct. 7.

The Utah attorney general’s press release says that, with the exception of Indivior, the companies are barred from promoting or marketing opioid medications and manufacturing or selling oxycodone that contains over 40 mg per pill. The seven other pharmaceutical corporations must also create a system to monitor and report suspicious orders. 

Indivior, on the other hand, can still market and sell medications to treat opioid use disorder. However, the company will not be able to manufacture or sell opioid products for the next 10 years.

The reason for the tight deadline to submit participation forms is that Midvale’s city staff was not notified of the settlement by the Utah Attorney General’s Office until a few weeks ago, as the office had outdated contact information, according to the city staff report.

“So one of the other requests that we have with this resolution is for the city council to pre-approve the mayor's staff to be able to fill out those participation forms moving forward under certain conditions,” Wilcox said. 

The resolution, Wilcox said, grants the mayor the authority to sign off on future opioid settlements without council input under three conditions: if the state of Utah negotiated the settlement, Midvale does not plan to sue directly, and if city staff have reviewed the case and concluded that joining is in Midvale’s best interest.

“City staff is not aware of how many additional settlements may still be negotiated, but there have been a number of the settlements in which the city has received fairly late notice of the settlement, and the deadline to join,” the staff report states.

The previous settlements Midvale joined include the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case in 2021. 

Purdue, the inventor of OxyContin, is often credited with being one of the main contributors to the opioid epidemic, with three of the company's top executives pleading guilty in 2007 to misbranding the slow-release form of oxycodone as less addictive than other opioids. The executives served no jail time.

Midvale also joined the settlements against Allergan and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in 2023. That same year, the city agreed to settlements with CVS, Walmart and Walgreens. The pharmacy chains allegedly failed to flag and report suspicious opioid prescriptions.

Kroger faced similar allegations against its pharmacy operations, and Midvale hopped onto the settlement against the grocery store chain in 2024.