Alabama Secures $220 Million From Opioid Distributors Cardinal Health and Cencora

For years, Alabama bore some of the country's heaviest opioid casualties. Overdose deaths climbed steadily through the 2010s and into the early 2020s, and state officials calculated that two of the country's largest pharmaceutical distributors, Cardinal Health and Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen), had shipped massive quantities of prescription opioids into Alabama communities without adequate controls. In 2022, Alabama filed suit against both companies in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Cardinal Health and Cencora together formed two-thirds of the national 'Big Three' wholesale drug distribution network. The state's theory was that the distributors had systematically failed to flag and halt suspicious opioid orders before filling them, funneling pills into a supply chain that fed addiction and death across Alabama. The state engaged Beasley Allen on contingency to lead the litigation alongside co-counsel Prince Glover Hayes and the Attorney General's Office.

Rhon Jones, who heads Beasley Allen's Toxic Torts Section, directed the litigation team. Over approximately 18 months of pretrial work, the team built the evidentiary record documenting the volume of opioids moving through the defendants' distribution networks and the adequacy of the suspicious-order monitoring those companies maintained.

In March 2024, before the case reached trial, Cardinal Health and Cencora agreed to pay a combined $220 million in abatement funds, structured over ten years. The terms were notably better than what the federal multidistrict opioid litigation had offered Alabama: the federal track had proposed $180 million paid over 18 years. The accelerated payment schedule and higher total in the state-court settlement translated into meaningfully more money reaching programs sooner.

The defendants also agreed to cover all fees and costs for the state's outside counsel, which means every dollar of the $220 million flows to abatement rather than attorney compensation. The funds are to be shared with local governments and public hospitals, with the state's share deposited into the General Fund for opioid-related programs. Attorney General Steve Marshall confirmed the settlement at a March 4, 2024 announcement, noting it followed prior Alabama opioid settlements that had already exceeded $500 million against drug manufacturers and other entities.

The $220 million settlement, reported by WSFA-TV in March 2024, identified Rhon Jones and the Beasley Allen team as the firm that had litigated the case for the state.