Four big drug firms agree $260m opioid payout hours before trial set to begin

Four major pharmaceutical companies have agreed a multimillion-dollar payout over the US opioid epidemic, hours before a federal trial in Ohio in which they were to be accused of a conspiracy to profit off of addiction and death.

Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in the world, and three drug distributors, among the biggest corporations in America, have agreed to pay a total of $260m to settle lawsuits by two Ohio counties.

The trial was intended as the first of a series designed to establish whether opioid makers,...