and delivering meaningful relief to communities across the united statesa separate deal between the companies and native american tribes is still being negotiatedwednesdays agreement leaves thousands of other lawsuits against many other pharmaceutical defendants still unresolved including manufacturers drugstore chains and smaller distributors most of those companies are working on negotiating their own deals which could potentially bring even more money to states cities counties and tribes purdue pharma the maker of oxycontin and its owners members of the billionaire sackler family are negotiating a settlement of at least 45 billion with plaintiffs as part of a bankruptcy restructuringattorney general josh stein of north carolina whose state could get up to 750 million from the agreement with the distributors and johnson johnson said that the total so far that could be gained from the opioid litigation when combining wednesdays deal with other potential settlements underway was almost 33 billionunder wednesdays agreement the countrys three distributors would make payments totaling 21 billion over 18 years johnson johnson would pay 5 billion over nine years a key feature of the agreement is that the distributors would establish an independent clearinghouse to track and report one anothers shipments a new and unusual mechanism intended to make data transparent and send up red flags immediately when outsize orders are madebut daunting obstacles remain before any checks are actually cutthe agreement will now go out to the states and all their municipalities for formal approval the states and the district of columbia will have 30 days to review the offers and structure including how much money they each would ultimately receivethe attorneys general did not offer a firm list of states on board on wednesday saying that many states have not yet had the chance to scrutinize the deala huge majority of states must sign on for the deal to proceed although the companies have not specified an exact number if that threshold is not met the companies could walk away and litigation would resumethough the announcement of the agreement by attorneys general from north carolina pennsylvania new york delaware louisiana tennessee and connecticut suggests that a critical mass of states have agreed in principle to the deal at least one was already refusing to sign onthe settlement is to be blunt not nearly good enough for washington said bob ferguson washingtons attorney general it stretches woefully insufficient funds into small payments over nearly 20 yearshe added we are looking forward to walking into a washington state courtroom to hold these companies accountable for their conduct washington families devastated by the opioid epidemic deserve their day in courtstates must also persuade their localities both those who have filed lawsuits and those who have not to agree to the deal the greater the number of local governments that sign on the greater the amount of money each state will receive indeed for a state to receive 100 percent of the money apportioned to it under the deal nearly 100 percent of its local agreements