Nov 13 (Reuters) - The city of Baltimore won $266

million in its lawsuit accusing top drug distributors McKesson

and Cencora ( COR ) of fueling an epidemic of opioid

addiction in the U.S., and is expected to seek billions more in

the next phase of the case.

A six-person jury in the Circuit Court for Baltimore found

McKesson responsible for $192 million and Cencora ( COR ) for $74

million on Tuesday following a nearly two-month trial. The

amount represents damages compensating the city for harms the

companies were found to have caused.

Baltimore, which has been hit hard by the opioid crisis,

opted out of large national opioid settlements in recent years

in the hope of winning more money on its own. In 2022, Baltimore

recorded 904 opioid overdose deaths, out of a total population

of about 569,000, while the national opioid overdose death rate

was about 25 per 100,000.

Next month, the city is expected to ask Judge Lawrence

Fletcher-Hill for about $9 billion from the companies to pay for

the cost of addressing the opioid crisis going forward. That is

a legal remedy known as abatement, and is distinct from civil

damages.

Baltimore accuses Cencora ( COR ), formerly called

AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson of ignoring red flags that

opioids they supplied were being diverted into illegal channels.

The companies deny the claim.

"Justice was done," said Bill Carmody, a lawyer for

Baltimore. "The jury's verdict is an important step toward

helping Baltimore recover so that it can continue to be one of

the best cities in America and a place where all of its citizens

can be healthy and succeed."

Both companies said they would seek to have the verdict

overturned. McKesson in a statement said that the verdict

"fundamentally misunderstands McKesson's limited role as a

pharmaceutical distributor."

Cencora ( COR ) said it "frays the legal and ethical tightrope the

company is being asked to walk between providing access to

necessary medications and acting to prevent diversion of

controlled substances."

Baltimore is one of more than 3,000 local, Native American

tribal and state governments across the country that have filed

similar lawsuits against drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies

over the opioid crisis. The vast majority of those cases have

been settled through nationwide agreements, which now total

about $46 billion.

With Tuesday's verdict, which comes after a series of

settlements with other companies including Walgreens and

Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ), Baltimore has now obtained more than

$668 million in verdicts and settlements.

McKesson supplied about half of Baltimore's opioids between

2006 and 2019, according to U.S. government data. In 2017, it

reached a $150 million settlement with the U.S. Department of

Justice, under which it admitted that it had failed in its duty

to prevent illegal drug sales nationwide.

Cencora ( COR ) is also currently facing a civil lawsuit by the

Justice Department over its alleged role in the opioid crisis.

More than 800,000 people in the United States died of opioid

overdoses from 1999 through 2023, according to data from the

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.