Texas has arrived at a settlement worth $290 million with the vaccine company Johnson & Johnson (J&J) over its part in the so-called opioid crisis. Texas Tribune Reporter Matthew Watkins said that the state sued the company individually before the settlement. The settlement funding will help pay for opiate use prevention and opiate recovery efforts. However, Watkins stated that it is not known how Texas would spend the funding in the next few years.
Texas was part of opioid cases other than the one that involved the vaccine supplier. Watkins also noted that the US state is slated to get more than $1 billion, because of lawsuits against non-J&J opioid producers and distributors.
You can learn more about the J&J settlement from a Texas Standard podcast as well. The other political stories include a GOP legislator’s probe into Texas school books about sexuality, race and more.
