Maryland Supreme Court throws out Baltimore’s opioid win

The Maryland Supreme Court tossed Baltimore’s $152 million victory in its opioid lawsuit against a pair of drug companies in a brief order issued Friday.

The decision is a major loss for the city, which adopted a go-it-alone strategy for opioid litigation that appeared to be paying off. Baltimore still won hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from drug companies that decided to pay out and avoid trial, but Friday’s Supreme Court decision vacates a significant jury verdict that found opioid distributors liable for their role in the city’s overdose crisis.

The order, signed by Chief Justice Matthew Fader, does not give reasons, but it refers back to a recent decision that put the opioid verdict in jeopardy. In it, the high court rejected a key legal theory that underpinned Baltimore’s arguments: that drug companies could be held responsible for “public nuisance” caused by the products they distributed.

In a statement, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s office said it disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision because it leaves local governments without legal recourse against corporations that cause harm in their communities.

“While the Supreme Court of Maryland’s unfortunate decision has vacated the city’s judgment against these two distributors, our commitment to continuing to address the opioids crisis and the effects of their malfeasance remains steadfast,” Scott said.

In 2018, Baltimore sued a list of drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, many of which settled before trial, handing the city at least $400 million — far more than the city would have received by agreeing to “global settlements” that many states and local jurisdictions reached with drug companies.

The two companies that didn’t settle were McKesson and AmerisourceBergen, now known as Cencora.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for McKesson said the company appreciates the Maryland Supreme Court’s order, calling the decision one that is supported by the law and the record in the case. Cencora did not respond to a request for comment.

The Supreme Court’s order sends the case back to Baltimore City Circuit Court for further proceedings.

The city won $266 million at the seven-week jury trial against McKesson and AmerisourceBergen in 2024. A Baltimore judge reduced that verdict, offering the city a total of $152 million.

The city accepted the deal but appealed the decision and asked Maryland’s Supreme Court to take up the case right away. The drug companies also asked the justices to hear the case. Friday’s order responds to that request.

About half a billion opioids flooded Baltimore City and Baltimore County between 2006 and 2019, the same years that drug companies were aggressively marketing painkillers and underplaying the risks of addiction, court records showed. The city claimed that easy access to legal opioids created a pool of users who sought out more dangerous street drugs when painkillers became less available following a federal crackdown.

The city argued that drug companies should share in the cost of remediating the overdose crisis that followed. Baltimore has experienced the highest rate of overdose deaths of any major city in America, according to a series of articles from The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times.

Madeleine O’Neill is a freelance reporter based in Baltimore.