SALEM, Ore. — Oregon's Attorney General Rosenblum announced today that the state will provide $600,000 in grants intended to help fight the state's opioid epidemic. The grants will go to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) Department of Family Medicine, according to a statement from the Attorney General's office.

The grant money is sourced from a $2.4 million settlement between the state and medical technology company Medtronic Sofamor Danek, Inc. The lawsuit claimed that the company unlawfully promoted their Infuse Bone Graft Device as far superior to existing bone graft techniques.

"We take an even greater satisfaction in resolving consumer cases like Medtronic when we are able to provide portions of the settlement to help with the underlying problems the case addresses. Here we are able to do that with two exceptional grantees that will be able to expand their work addressing pain management and opioid addiction," said Attorney General Rosenblum.

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According the Attorney General's office, both the OHA and OHSU have programs aimed at providing opioid addiction services, which the grants are intended to support.

 - $260,000 will go to the OHA so that they can expand their Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention and Clinical Prescribing Guidelines Implementation Project. The project will now be able to increase the number of health systems in Oregon that implement best practices in pain management and safe opioid prescribing as recommended by the CDC, and establish a second Pain Management Improvement Team.

 - $360,000 will go to OHSU's Project Nurture, a Health Share supported program with several sites in the Portland Metro area that was created to address the needs of pregnant women with substance use disorders. Project Nurture integrates substance use disorder treatment with primary care (including pain management), prenatal care, intrapartum care, postpartum care and well-baby care that women with substance use disorders need while pregnant and in the first year of the child's life.

"In order to fight Oregon's opioid crisis, we must find innovative ways to fund pain management research and support our local communities that are on the front lines of this health crisis,” said Attorney General Rosenblum.