HOUSE PANEL URGES REVIEW OF DRUGMAKERS’ OPIOID SETTLEMENT TAX BREAKS

The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday pressed the departments of Justice and the Treasury to look into the tax deductions of four U.S. drug companies that agreed to a multibillion-dollar settlement last month to end opioid-related lawsuits.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the panel said it had found four companies that agreed to the $26 billion settlement — Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson — are possibly trying to “put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in settlement costs.”

“We request that you determine whether these tax maneuvers comply with the law, and we urge you to do everything in your power to ensure transparency and accountability for the companies and executives that fueled our country’s deadly opioid crisis,” wrote the committee.

“The Committee remains deeply concerned that these companies will be allowed to claim billions in tax benefits resulting from great harm to the American people,” read the letter.