Oklahoma State Sues Drug Distributors Over Alleged Role in Opioid Crisis
January 13 2020 - 7:19PM
Dow Jones News
By Kimberly Chin
The office of Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said Monday
it had filed a lawsuit against three opioid drug distributors for
their alleged role in fueling the opioid epidemic in the state,
adding to the slew of lawsuits the companies are already facing
across the nation.
McKesson Corp. (MCK), Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH) and
AmerisourceBergen Corp. (ABC) had allegedly failed to alert
Oklahoma and federal authorities of suspiciously large orders of
the addictive opioid drugs it had distributed to the state, the
attorney general's office said.
By law, companies are required to report suspicious opioid-drug
shipments to law-enforcement officials and halt orders of the drugs
unless due diligence is conducted to prove their legitimacy.
In the Oklahoma suit, which was filed in Cleveland County
District Court, the attorney general's office claims the companies
had distributed more opioid drugs into communities than could have
served a legitimate medical need, and it ignored red flags in
addition to the suspicious orders.
"Clearly these companies turned a blind eye to the devastation
they were causing around the country," said Mr. Hunter in a press
conference Monday. "They skirted the rules to line their
pockets."
The attorney general's office said it is seeking damages for
negligence and unjust enrichment, claiming the companies' behaviors
led to the "oversupply, diversion, addiction and overdose deaths"
of people in Oklahoma communities.
"Our company plays an important but limited role in the
pharmaceutical supply chain, and any suggestion that McKesson drove
demand for opioids in this country reflects a fundamental
misunderstanding and mischaracterization of our role as a
distributor," a McKesson representative said in an email.
Players up and down the pharmaceutical supply chain, including
drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies, have been sued by
virtually every state and thousands of city and county
governments.
A Cardinal Health spokeswoman referred to the global settlement
framework that all three of the companies are trying to reach to
settle sweeping litigation brought by state and local governments.
"Cardinal Health supports the global settlement framework as a path
to opioid litigation resolution that would bring real and immediate
relief to communities across our nation affected by the opioid
epidemic," the spokeswoman said.
A representative at AmerisourceBergen couldn't immediately be
reached for comment.
Write to Kimberly Chin at kimberly.chin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 13, 2020 19:04 ET (00:04 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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