Conshohocken-based AmerisourceBergen along with McKesson and Cardinal Health has reached a $518 million settlement with Washington in a complex trial over their role in flooding the state with highly addictive opioid painkillers, writes Gene Johnson for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The nation’s three largest opioid distributors and Johnson & Johnson already reached a national settlement last summer with 46 states to pay nearly $20 billion over 18 years but Washington decided not to sign on at the time.

The current settlement is worth tens of millions of dollars more than the state would have gotten if it had joined that deal, according to Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

“We could have joined the overwhelming majority of states and settled with the the largest opioid distributors, but we chose to fight them in court instead,” he said. “That decision to take them to court will result in significant additional resources for Washington to combat the opioid epidemic.”

Under the settlement, the majority of the money ($476 million) will be spent on addressing the opioid crisis, expand access to overdose-reversal drugs, and providing people who are struggling with addiction with housing, job placement, and other services.

The remainder of the money will be used to cover litigation costs. Read more about AmerisourceBergen in The Philadelphia Inquirer.