Kentucky has secured two multimillion-dollar settlements with pharmaceutical companies in cases concerning a prescription drug that's meant to help people addicted to opioids, as well as contraceptives linked to blood clots.

Attorney General Andy Beshear announced Wednesday that his office is recovering $22.7 million in Medicaid dollars from a company to settle allegations that it improperly marketed and promoted Suboxone, a drug that's used to treat people who are dependent on opioids.

Suboxone reduces withdrawal symptoms to help people achieve sobriety, Beshear said, but it can be addictive if patients don't receive proper counseling and supervision.

He said the settlement is part of an agreement Reckitt Benckiser Group reached with the federal government, Kentucky and other states to resolve various allegations, including claims that it knowingly promoted Suboxone to doctors who wrote prescriptions to patients who weren't getting the necessary counseling.

"They were promoting prescriptions that were simply flooding a state with this opioid derivative without the benefits that it could provide to the folks who were trying to get sober," he said.

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On top of that, Beshear's office has won a $17 million settlement with Bayer Corp., which manufactures the birth control drugs Yaz and Yasmin.

That deal resolves a case the state started in 2013, which Beshear continued to pursue after he became attorney general in late 2015.

Bayer was accused of failing to provide women with accurate information about evidence that indicated there was a higher risk for blood clots when patients used Yaz and Yasmin compared with similar contraceptives, according to a news release from the attorney general's office.

In a statement to The Courier Journal, Bayer Corp. said it did not admit any wrongdoing or liability as part of this settlement with Kentucky.

"This resolution reflects a desire by the Company to avoid the distraction of continued litigation and focus on the needs of patients and prescribers," the company's statement said. "The FDA continues to find that the benefits of Yasmin and YAZ outweigh its risks."

A request for comment The Courier Journal sent to Reckitt Benckiser Group concerning the Suboxone settlement wasn't immediately returned Wednesday afternoon.

Beshear hopes to become Kentucky's next governor when he takes on Republican Gov. Matt Bevin on Nov. 5.

At Wednesday's announcement, he emphasized that this pair of settlements are part of his broader effort to pursue lawsuits against major corporations over the negative impact their actions have had on Kentuckians.

"Make no mistake: This is a battle. It takes tenacity. It takes commitment," he said. "Sometimes, it even takes almost a decade to hold these large companies accountable for the harms they inflict on our families."

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Earlier this year, Beshear launched lawsuits against three companies, including Eli Lilly, over skyrocketing insulin prices and joined a federal lawsuit against various manufacturers for hiking the price of generic drugs too much.

He also secured nearly $1.5 million in a multistate settlement with a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson in a case that focused on allegations that the company made misleading claims about how long certain hip implants would last.

On the campaign trail, Beshear has highlighted the work he has done to hold companies that manufacture and distribute opioids accountable for their role in the addiction crisis that has engulfed Kentucky.

He has filed nine such lawsuits, including one against Johnson & Johnson, which was ordered by an Oklahoma judge to pay $572 million in a similar case concerning misleading marketing campaigns that promoted opioids.

But Beshear's record on the opioid issue has been complicated by a deal Kentucky's state government reached with Purdue Pharma, the notorious company that manufactures OxyContin, before he even became attorney general.

That $24 million settlement, which Beshear's predecessor finalized just before Beshear took office in late 2015, has repeatedly been criticized by Bevin and other Republicans.

GOP officials have said Kentucky settled for too small an amount, considering the bigger payouts Purdue Pharma agreed to in later cases.

However, legal experts have said Kentucky wasn't shortchanged because that $24 million deal was a significant settlement at the time. (Kentucky first sued Purdue Pharma in 2007.)

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“Purdue was playing hardball back then," said professor Richard Ausness of the University of Kentucky College of Law. "They’re sort of on the ropes now."

Republican officials in Kentucky also have repeatedly questioned whether Beshear — who used to work for the law firm that represented Purdue Pharma in the lawsuit Kentucky brought against the company — had any conflicts of interest with that case.

Beshear has consistently denied being directly involved in the Purdue Pharma lawsuit or the settlement negotiations with the state of Kentucky, although his campaign ignored multiple questions last month about that case.

Morgan Watkins: 502-582-4502; mwatkins@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @morganwatkins26. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/morganw.