 Drug
distributors face off against West Virginia in billion-dollar opioid
trial
Send a link to a friend
[May 03, 2021]
By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) - The three largest U.S. drug
distributors, who are accused of helping fuel the opioid crisis that has
resulted in nearly 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States, will
defend themselves in a trial that kicks off on Monday.
|
|
 The trial against AmerisourceBergen Corp, McKesson Corp and Cardinal
Health Inc in Charleston, West Virginia, involves a lawsuit seeking
more than $1 billion brought by the city of Huntington and Cabell
County.
They claim the companies ignored red flags that opioids were being
diverted to illegal channels, flooding the state with hundreds of
millions of highly addictive pills.
The distributors have denied the claims, arguing they cannot be
liable for distributing pills that were prescribed by doctors.
Huntington and Cabell, along with other West Virginia towns and
counties, opted out of a proposed $26 billion nationwide settlement
with the three distributors and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
A verdict in the trial could help lay the groundwork for settlements
in the sprawling nationwide litigation over the opioid crisis, which
encompasses more than 3,300 lawsuits by local governments around the
country against opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies.
[to top of second column] |
 Opioids have resulted in the
overdose deaths of nearly 500,000 people in the
United States from 1999 to 2019, according to
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
West Virginia is among the hardest hit states,
recording more opioid prescriptions and overdose
deaths per capita than any other in 2018,
according to data from the National Institutes
of Health.
Another opioid trial is underway in a case
brought by California counties against J&J and
other drugmakers, and a trial in a case brought
by New York counties is scheduled to begin next
month.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York;
Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content
 |
