(Bloomberg) -- A settlement of almost $50 billion proposed by opioid makers and distributors is drawing more support from states, including California and New York, as the companies try to make a deal before a trial in New York next month, people with knowledge of the talks said.

But nearly two dozen states and most of the cities and counties suing to hold the opioid industry responsible for the havoc wreaked by its products say the terms aren’t good enough.

A Feb. 22 vote by the members of the National Association of Attorneys General found 35 states and U.S territories backing offers by Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp. and other opioid companies to pay more than $23 billion in cash and to donate drugs and other services valued at more than $26 billion over nearly two decades, people familiar with the results said.

That’s a pickup of seven states plus one U.S. territory since the offer was unveiled in October, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The pro-settlement state attorneys general are pushing the deal to resolve more than 2,500 lawsuits seeking to recover billions spent battling the U.S. opioid epidemic.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jef Feeley in Wilmington, Delaware at jfeeley@bloomberg.net;Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Peter Jeffrey

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