A new website tracks the how the money Pennsylvania receives from opioid settlements is being spent throughout the state.
The Pennsylvania Opioid Settlement Data site shows how much money each county and other jurisdiction received between Aug. 1, 2022 and Dec. 31, 2024 — and how they have spent and plan to spend those funds. It includes breakdowns on how various remediation strategies are being funded and which populations are being targeted.
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The website, which launched Monday, was created by researchers at Temple University, Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh as a way to ensure transparency and promote public health.
"The counties may benefit from this data as they continue to explore meeting the needs of their respective communities," Jonathan Larsen, legal technology manager at Temple University's Center for Public Health Law Research, said in a statement. "What we're doing in Pennsylvania is hopefully something that's useful to other states to determine how they want to process their spending and make it more transparent."
Pennsylvania allocates 85% of the funds it receives to counties and other jurisdictions, like the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and various municipalities. The other 15% goes to an account controlled by the governor and the legislature.
Counties and other jurisdictions have received $390 million through the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust, the website shows. So far, about $84 million has been spent, including $14 million on treatment medications for opioid use disorder, $8 million on prevention strategies and $6.5 million on recovery support programs. Another $52 million has been committed but not yet spent.
Philadelphia has received $80.6 million, spent $20.4 million and committed $3.5 million more. The city's Office of Homeless Services' Housing First Initiative has received the most money, at $5.8 million, to support individuals experiencing homelessness and suffering from substance abuse.
The Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust began distributing opioid funds in 2022 following the $26 billion settlement that 14 states reached in 2021 with Johnson & Johnson and three major drug distributors. Pennsylvania is expected to receive up to $1.07 billion over 18 years from this agreement.
Additional settlements with other drug companies have since been reached, including a $7.4 billion nationwide settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, which awards Pennsylvania $200 million over 15 years. That deal, reached in June, followed a $720 million settlement several states reached with eight opioid manufacturers in July. Pennsylvania is in line to receive up to $28 million from that one.
"This is an opportunity to have a major impact as we continue efforts to reduce overdoses and overdose-related deaths," Larsen said. "It also opens many opportunities for future research on health outcomes related to opioids that we want to understand better."
More than 4,700 people died of drug overdoses in Pennsylvania in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the state. That was down from about 5,200 overdose deaths in 2022. In Philadelphia, fatal overdoses fell to 1,310 in 2023 — a 7% drop from its record high of 1,413 in 2022.
"Not only is Pennsylvania one of the largest states in terms of the amount of money it will receive, but the state also took a unique approach in allocating 85% of the funds to the local level, making sure it gets to both urban and rural counties and acknowledging that the need for assistance is not limited to only larger or more populous counties," Dennis Scanlon, a Penn State professor of health policy and administration who led the website's development, said in a statement.
The Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust was not involved in the website's launch.