On Monday, July 4, Federal Judge David A. Faber ruled that the nation’s top three pain reliever distributors caused no public nuisance by shipping millions of drugs that created an opioid addiction crisis in West Virginia.
The companies AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson won a legal victory in the United States District Court in West Virginia, after Faber ruled that they were responsible for the consequences of an opioid flood.
The distributors denied any wrongdoing, saying the painkillers they shipped were prescribed by licensed doctors and filled at pharmacies.
They argued that they had no way of knowing that those prescriptions were not legitimate and that any of the drugs could have been funneled onto the black market.
The arguments of the distributors’ lawyers resonated with the judge, who ruled that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the companies’ conduct was unreasonable, a key element in establishing a public nuisance case.
The federal judge found that the companies’ conduct could not be connected to the harm suffered by the communities.
Ultimately, it ruled that the plaintiffs failed to design a detailed abatement plan outlining how the communities would spend the money they received if they prevailed at trial since attorneys representing Cabell and Huntington counties requested $2.6 billion from the three companies for the drug epidemic recovery efforts.
Opioid crisis in West Virginia
Before the coronavirus pandemic began, the West Virginia trial was meant to be a benchmark test of a novel legal strategy in the sprawling national litigation against companies, including drugmakers and pharmacies.
Attorneys for Huntington and Cabell counties argued that the companies shipped drugs without heeding red flags that the pills might have been diverted to the black market, with costly consequences for communities ravaged by addiction and deaths. .
The increase in pills going to West Virginia was due in part, he said, to “good faith dispensing” as well as increased product thresholds set by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In an eight-year span ending in 2014, more than 81 million prescription hydrocodone and oxycodone pills were distributed in West Virginia County, enough for 94 pills per adult and child per year.
Main news source: The Washington Post.
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