J&J among four companies to pay $590m to Native Americans in opioid claims deal

America's 574 federally recognised Native American tribes and Alaska Native villages experienced higher rates of drug overdose deaths than the national average

More than 3,300 lawsuits have been filed largely by state, local and tribal governments seeking to hold those and other companies responsible for an opioid abuse epidemic that led to hundreds of thousand of US overdose deaths over the last two decades. File photo: AP/Toby Talbot

The three largest US drug distributors and drug-maker Johnson & Johnson have agreed to pay $590m (€520m) to resolve claims by Native American tribes that the companies fueled an opioid epidemic in their communities, according to court filings.

Tuesday's deal came after the distributors, McKesson, Amerisource Bergen and Cardinal Health, along with J&J last year proposed paying up to $26bn to resolve similar claims by US states and local governments.