Tag: AmerisourceBergen

Rite Aid Agrees To Opioid Settlement

The pharmacy chain Rite Aid has settled a case over its involvement in the state’s opioid crisis.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced a settlement Thursday with the pharmacy chain Rite Aid that could provide up to $30 million dollars for recovery efforts in the state. The lawsuit alleged that Rite Aid contributed to the state’s opioid crisis by oversupplying addictive pills.

The West Virginia First Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, is an agreement by counties and cities on how to spend funds received from opioid settlements. Following the MOU, the settlement funds from Rite Aid go to state and local programs for the reduction of opioid addiction.

In May, Teva and Allergan settled for $161.5 million; in April, drug manufacturers Johnson & Johnson settled for $99 million; and in March, Endo Health Solutions settled for $26 million.

In a July ruling, the three big drug distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen were found not liable in a case brought by Cabell County and the City of Huntington. In August, the same distributors settled for $400 million with other cities and counties in the state.

Although Rite Aid settled their case, a trial is set in September as part of the Mass Litigation Panel for remaining pharmacy defendants.

Cabell County Appeals Opioid Ruling

Officials with the Cabell County Commission are moving to appeal a federal judge's ruling.

The Cabell County Commission voted unanimously to appeal a federal judge’s ruling in favor of drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.

Judge David Faber ruled that the state’s public nuisance law did not apply to the three distributors for distributing 81 million addictive pills over the span of eight years.

Huntington Mayor Steve Williams spoke before the commission, indicating that the city is backing the appeal.

“Our constituents need to know we’re not giving up,” he said. “I’m proud to be able to stand by the Cabell County Commission with the City of Huntington, for us to aggressively continue forward on abating this scourge from our community.”

Initially, Huntington and Cabell County asked for more than $2.5 billion to fund opioid response programs.

Huntington Mayor Reacts To Opioid Verdict

A federal judge ruled in favor of three drug distributors that were accused of fueling the opioid epidemic in Huntington and Cabell County. Local leaders are considering their next step.

Judge David Faber ruled that opioid distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson did not create a public nuisance by distributing 81 million pills over the span of eight years in Huntington and Cabell County.

“The distribution of medicine to support the legitimate medical needs of patients as determined by doctors exercising their medical judgment in good faith cannot be deemed an unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public,” Faber wrote.

The judge stated that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that the wave of addictive painkillers were because of unreasonable conduct, and that the defendants were acting in a legitimate response to keep up with the demand set by doctor prescriptions.

“I don’t know what more that we needed to prove,” Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said. “It was a collaborative effort of the manufacturers, the distributors, and the pharmaceutical companies.“

Huntington and Cabell County asked for more than $2.5 billion in order to fund opioid response programs as part of a 15-year abatement plan.

According to Williams, the defendants denied responsibility to assist in the community’s recovery.

“One thing that frankly aggravated me in the trial is when the defendants were indicating that the City of Huntington should be paying for all these recovery programs,” he said.

Williams indicated that the plaintiffs plan on meeting with legal counsel to discuss their next steps.

More W.Va. Towns, Counties Sue Over Opioid Crisis

Two West Virginia counties have joined numerous others in suing pharmaceutical companies, drugstores and the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy over the state’s opioid crisis.

The Exponent Telegram reports that Barbour and Taylor counties have hired lawyers from West Virginia and Florida to seek temporary and permanent restraining orders to curb practices they say are fueling the crisis, restitution, punitive damages and an insurance award from the Board of Pharmacy.

The lawsuits filed Tuesday says the defendants, including McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal, knew opioids were addictive, yet still flooded the state with the drugs through unscrupulous practices.

The pharmaceutical companies have denied similar claims.

Eleven local West Virginia governments are also suing drug companies who they say failed to follow state and federal law to prevent the distribution and abuse of prescription pain medication that’s created the state’s opioid crisis.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports the lawsuits filed in the federal court this week come from governments around the state. The municipalities include Quinwood, Rupert, Rainelle, Milton, Smithers, Sutton, Logan, Summersville and Parkersburg, in addition to Nicholas and Braxton counties.

Drug Firm Seeks to Dismiss McDowell County Pain Pill Suit

A major prescription drug distributor is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company fueled West Virginia’s opioid epidemic with excessively large shipment of painkillers.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports an attorney for AmerisourceBergen said McDowell County commissioners are misguided in in blaming drug distributors for the drug problem.

Attorney Alvin Emch says the company only supplied pain pills to federally licensed pharmacies. He says there is no evidence that the company shipped any pills that were diverted for non-medical use.

A newspaper investigation showed the county’s 28,000 residents, were shipped 9 million hydrocodone and 3.2 million oxycodone pills over six years. The county has the highest overdose rate in the U.S.

In January, AmerisourceBergen agreed to pay West Virginia $16 million to settle a similar lawsuit. The company denied wrongdoing.

W.Va. Settling Drug Suit Against 2 More Distributors

Two major prescription drug distributors have agreed to settle a West Virginia lawsuit alleging they fueled West Virginia’s opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers into the state over several years.

 

Boone County Circuit Court Judge William Thompson disclosed the “settlement in principle” in an order Tuesday cancelling further proceedings.

He directed Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and the state attorney general’s office to provide details by the week of Jan. 9.

 

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the settlements, with terms undisclosed, end the state suit against the companies.

 

The newspaper’s investigation found drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in six years, a period when 1,728 people statewide fatally overdosed on them.

 

The state has settled similar claims against other wholesalers.

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