This week four large drug companies reached a last-minute settlement with two counties in Ohio for their role in the opioid epidemic. This avoids what would have been the first federal trial over the issue, which many regarded as a test trial that could have shaped almost 2,600 other lawsuits that are pending over the same thing.

The settlement totals $260 million and covers AmerisourceBergen Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp as well as Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., who is paying Cuyahoga and Summit counties $20 million in cash and will provide $25 million worth of Suboxone, an opioid addiction treatment. Another defendant, Henry Schein Inc. will pay $1.25 million.

There is still a remaining defendant, pharmacy chain operator Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and the judge who was overseeing this week’s trial said he will work out a new trial date.

This deal adds to deals already struck between the two counties and four other drug companies that are worth $66.4 million.

The lawsuits accuse drugmakers of downplaying the risks of opioids and overstating the benefits, and accused distributors of failing to halt increasingly suspicious orders, shipping significant amounts of the drug. Drugmakers have denied wrongdoing, saying their products were FDA approved and contained warnings of the addictive risks. Distributors have said they make up just one component of the supply chain and they made sure medicine prescribed by doctors were there for patients.

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