Baltimore jurors erred by awarding too much money to the city in its verdict against two drug manufacturing titans last November, a judge ruled Thursday.

The verdict determined McKesson and AmerisourceBergen unreasonably shipped huge sums of painkillers to the Baltimore area and fueled the city’s opioid epidemic. Jurors found these two companies responsible for 97% of the crisis and consequently awarded the city $266 million in damages — an amount Baltimore City Circuit Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill suggested should be reduced to $52 million.

“The Court finds that the verdict rendered is grossly excessive in light of the evidence and is shocking to the Court,” Fletcher-Hill wrote Thursday.

Attorneys for McKesson and AmerisourceBergen argued it was “plainly illogical” to assign them this much responsibility for the opioid crisis, which they said was caused by illegal street drugs like heroin and fentanyl. The companies asked Fletcher-Hill to overrule the verdict, reduce the amount awarded or call a new trial — to which the judge responded by ruling the city could either agree to a reduced verdict of $52 million or have a new trial to determine damages.

Fletcher-Hill’s ruling did not address the additional $5 billion the city sought from McKesson and AmerisourceBergen last December to relieve its opioid crisis in the future. The November verdict was related to past drug distribution actions.

“Having decided that a new trial on damages may be necessary, it is not appropriate to continue with the abatement remedy,” Fletcher-Hill wrote, referring to the city’s $5 billion future-oriented request.

Baltimore has already secured more than $400 million from settlements with other pharmaceutical companies in relation to its opioid crisis. These settlements include:

—$45 million from Allergan, June 2024

—$45 million from CVS, August 2024

—$152 million from Cardinal Health, August 2024

—$80 million from Tiva, September 2024

—$80.5 million from Walgreens, September 2024

Mayor Scott responds

In a statement Thursday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott called the ruling “disappointing to say the least” and said the city is considering all legal options moving forward.

“While the court acknowledged that the City proved that McKesson and AmerisourceBergen were liable for the City’s opioids crisis, we are disappointed that the court abandoned the remainder of the findings of the jury, which carefully reviewed this case over nearly two months last year,” Scott wrote. “As the only municipality in the country to secure verdicts against these two companies, which were responsible for the bulk of the opioids flooding into Baltimore, we will continue to fight — just as we have fought for our city every step of the way through this litigation process.”

Scott’s statement continued by saying that despite the reduced verdict, the city made the right decision by pursuing litigation on behalf of families impacted by the opioid crisis.

“We must not lose sight of the heart of this effort. We stood tall to say Baltimore deserved more, that the families destroyed by these companies deserved better,” the mayor wrote.

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