CONCORD – A global settlement announced Monday between attorneys general of 50 states and territories, including New Hampshire, and the opioid manufacturer Mallinckrodt will create a trust into which Mallinckrodt agreed to put $1.6 billion that will eventually be distributed to states to help them fight the opioid crisis.

The agreement, according to Attorney General Gordon MacDonald, comes roughly 14 months after the state filed a 68-page complaint in Merrimack County Superior Court alleging that Mallinckrodt, the largest generic opioid manufacturer in the U.S., violated New Hampshire’s consumer protection laws.

MacDonald said those violations include Mallinckrodt’s alleged “failure to disclose known and serious risks of addiction from its opioids, misrepresenting the abuse-deterrence qualities of its opioids and failing to report suspicious orders of its opioids,” according to the statement his office released Monday.

The complaint, filed in August 2019, cites a window of time between 2006-14, during which Mallinckrodt accounted for 21.8 % of all opioid transactions in New Hampshire, the highest amount of any opioid manufacturer.

Also during that time frame, according to MacDonald, Mallinckrodt “sold the equivalent of approximately 153.5 million 10 milligram opioid pills” in a state of about 1.35 million people.

“That was enough Mallinckrodt opioids to provide each man, woman, and child in New Hampshire with 114 pills each,” MacDonald said.

Mallinckrodt’s actions, according to allegations in the complaint, “created a public nuisance throughout the state.”

Details such as how much money each state will receive, how the funds will be distributed, and how the trust will be administered will all be determined through the negotiations that will take place as part of Mallinckrodt’s bankruptcy process.

In the meantime, the sides worked out a schedule through which Mallinckrodt will make incremental payments toward the $1.6 billion.

It agrees to pay $450 million upon emergence from bankruptcy; $200 million annually on the first and second anniversary of emergence from bankruptcy; and $150 million annually on the third through the seventh anniversaries of emergence from bankruptcy, according to MacDonald’s statement.

Described on its Website as a “multibillion dollar specialty pharmaceutical company … that develops, manufactures, markets and distributes specialty pharmaceutical products and diagnostic imaging agents,” Mallinckrodt has agreed to subject its opioid business “to stringent injunctive relief that, among other things, will prevent marketing and ensure systems are in place to prevent drug misuse,” according to MacDonald.

In a statement posted on its Website, Mallinckrodt president and CEO Mark Trudeau said the firm’s management and board of directors “determined that implementing a Chapter 11 restructuring provides the best opportunity to maximize the value of the enterprise and position the company for the future, in light of the current challenges it faces.”

The decision came “after many months of deliberation, negotiation and consideration of alternatives,” Trudeau wrote.

Acknowledging the company was facing “significant litigation and debt issues” that have been “overhanging our business,” Trudeau said management has “worked diligently over the last several months to evaluate all available options to achieve a comprehensive resolution.”

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Gov. Chris Sununu called the settlement the result of “strong action” taken by officials “to hold bad actors accountable and demand the necessary financial relief that will help our state prevail” in the opioid crisis.

The settlement, Sununu added, represents “another important step toward ending the irresponsible business practices that have devastated countless lives.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.