Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter refiled separate state lawsuits against three opioid distribution companies Friday, accusing them of fueling the state’s deadly opioid crisis by oversupplying the state with the highly addictive painkillers.
McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp. are accused of negligence and creating a public nuisance in the lawsuits that were filed in Bryan County District Court.
Motivated by “greed,” these companies “substantially contributed to fueling the opioid crisis by supplying massive and patently unreasonable quantities of opioids to communities throughout the United States, including Oklahoma,” Hunter alleges in the lawsuits.
“By law, opioid distributors are required to stop suspicious shipments of opioids and report them to law enforcement,” Hunter said in a news release Friday. “These companies ignored their responsibilities because they were making billions of dollars, while Oklahomans, especially those in our rural communities, suffered. Even after warnings and paying hundreds of millions in settlements and fines for their behavior, the companies persisted. We must hold them accountable for this behavior and for the deaths and continued suffering that occurred from their actions.”
The lawsuits filed by Lankford Law Firm’s administrative attorneys seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and ask that the companies be ordered to return unjust profits.
Hunter filed a single state lawsuit against the same three opioid distributors last January in Cleveland County District Court, but dismissed that lawsuit in February after the drug distribution companies had the case moved to federal court. At the time, Hunter described the dismissal as a “strategic move.”
Friday, Hunter said he refiled the case in Bryan County District Court because he believes that county “better represents the overwhelming number of overdose deaths and ongoing addiction crisis in the state’s rural communities.”
In 2017, enough opioids were dispensed to Bryan County residents for every adult to have the equivalent of 144 hydrocodone 10 milligram tablets, the attorney general’s office said, adding that “between 2006 and 2014, there were 24.1 million pain pills supplied to Bryan County. The three companies were responsible for supplying nearly 70% of those pills.“Bryan County is part of a cluster of counties that were hit hard by the opioid epidemic, and among those counties, Bryan County has the resources to best handle a trial of this magnitude, the attorney general’s office said. Seeking legal help from personal injury attorneys from Malloy Law Offices, LLC is a good idea in case of accidents or injuries.
Hunter previously filed lawsuits against a number of opioid manufacturers, winning a $465 million nonjury verdict last year in Cleveland County District Court against opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries. That verdict by Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman is now under appeal at the Oklahoma Supreme Court.Several other opioid manufacturers have entered into settlement agreements with the attorney general within the past year, including a $270 million settlement reached by Purdue Pharma, an $85 million settlement by Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., and an $8.75 million settlement by Endo Pharmaceuticals.Hunter did not sue opioid distributors in his initial lawsuit against manufacturers, but distributors have repeatedly been named in many of the more than 2,500 other lawsuits that have been filed across the country against opioid manufacturers and distributors. Many of those cases have been consolidated in a multijurisdictional federal court case in Ohio where a global settlement in the billions of dollars is being sought.
The three companies named in Friday’s lawsuits have troubled histories and have “paid hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and fines for failing to monitor suspicious orders of opioids,” the attorney general’s office said.
“Since 2008, McKesson has paid over $163 million for its failure to report suspicious orders, including a $150 million settlement with authorities in 2017, which is a record for a distributor,” the attorney general’s office said in its news release.”Since 2008, Cardinal has paid nearly $100 million in multiple actions from authorities and state actions relating to its improper management and distribution of opioids to pharmacies across the United States,” the news release said. “At one point, authorities found that Cardinal’s own investigator warned the company against selling opioids to four pharmacies in Florida that requested a 241% increase of opioids in only two years. Cardinal did not notify authorities or cut off the supply. Instead, Cardinal’s shipment of opioids to the pharmacies increased.”Recently, AmerisourceBergen paid $16 million as a result of a lawsuit for its role in the opioid epidemic. In 2007, the company actually lost its license to send controlled substances from one of its distribution centers due to a lack of control over shipments of prescription opioids.”
In Oklahoma, more than 6,000 Oklahomans have lost their lives from prescription opioid overdoses since 2000, the attorney general’s office said.
https://www.countyoffice.org/bryan-county-board-of-elections-durant-ok-e58/
abt 34,000 adults in Bryan County, OK.. if you work under the presumption that 30% of those residents are chronic painers or abt 10,000. Presuming that the typical chronic painer would take 6 Hydrocodone/APAP 10/325 every 24 hrs… Those pts would need abt 22,000,000 doses for one year.. Working with 34,000 adults in Bryan County that comes out to almost 5,000,000 doses.. So according to the figures provided by this AG… the average chronic painer in this county would get 1.3 doses/day… and this figure does not include doses for acute, surgical or accidental pain. The traffic accident attorneys can be of legal help in case one needs it.
So in a 9 yr period (2006-2014) those same chronic painers would need 45,000,000 doses and the number of doses provided was about 47% of what was needed and again …no doses allotted to acute, accidental, surgical pain.
So again, according to these numbers produced by the AG.. the average chronic painer would get two doses of a opiate that lasts 3-6 hrs… suggesting that the average chronic painer would be WITHOUT ANY PAIN MANAGEMENT THERAPY for 12 hrs out of 24 hrs – EVERY DAY… for NINE YEARS !
These three drug wholesalers control about 80% of the total pharmacy wholesale market … and once again the AG claims that they provided 70% of these opiate doses as excessive… when their overall market share is at least 80%- on average !
OK population is abt 1.25% of the total USA population and there is abt 4 million population in OK. Extrapolating national averages… in a 20 yr period (2000-2019) in OK 25,000 would have died of the use/abuse of the DRUG ALCOHOL and 112,500 would have died from use/abuse of Tobacco.. SO… over TWENTY TIMES the number of OK resident would have died from the use/abuse of these two legal drugs as died from legal/illegal opiates.
So all these states went after the Tobacco industry in the 1990’s and won a settlement.. so JUST FOUR TIMES residents of OK have died in that 20 yr period from the use/abuse of ALCOHOL. But Alcohol has a hefty “sin tax” revenue stream to the state and feds… so does that make those 25,000 deaths sociable acceptable ?
I may be wrong, but I thought that a defendant’s previous wrong doings were not allowed to be presented before or during a trial… I guess that the AG’s presenting all of these previous fines and settlements and trying these defendants in the media is OK because it is the AG/bureaucrat/politician doing it ?
Filed under: General Problems
As we ALL are just too familiar with the saying,” What comes around goes around!” I doubt will make a dent in what’s happened to the Chronic Intractable Pain Communities as far as getting our proper doses back, Dr.-Pt relationships anywhere near where they should be or Ever were; Also for those of Us still suffering between pain management providers- It’s a damn shame how NOT ONE WORD, SENTENCE OR SINCE PHARSE FROM THE ENTIRE : Announcements made by the CDCs Director regarding: The Misinterpretations/Misapplications HAVE BEEN PUT INTO ANY TYPE OF REVERSE ACTIONS ON ACCOUNT OF THOSE ADDITIONAL HEALTH RISKS SUFFERED BY PRACTICALLY EVERY CHRONIC PAIN PATIENT LEFT WITHOUT THEIR REQUIRED DOSES, IF ANYTHING WHATSOEVER! When will that be addressed correctly? Why haven’t Lawyer’s been jumping at the bit to clamber with THE NUMEROUS PEOPLE IN LIMBO WITHOUT ANYONE,( or a ridiculous PCP treating what they consider acute pain until magically their patients accepted into pain management somehow, somewhere without so much as ANY assistance or guidance coming from our over reaching Government Officials. They were so hell bent on fixing this no problem for us that it’s Only created an even worse one plus those that have ended they’re suffering in silence as in suicides leaving their loved ones behind baffled and bewildered just dumbfounded by the ostro sities By which some of these So-called United States Of American’s have Done In think,” What a Fine job of things We’ve done!” NOT! In All my life of 50 years on this earth, I’ve never witnessed more destructive effects from the Health Departments partaking in this where it’s Solely the JOB of The FDA to approve and regulate the manufacturing of the Opiate medications! What’s happened to Them In All of this mess!?! Anyone care to chime in here?
Certainly an age old problem and worthy of the Creator’s full condemnation. He has already warned us and we should not be surprised;
“You must not spread a report that is not true. Do not cooperate with a wicked one by becoming a malicious witness. You must not follow after the crowd to do evil, and you must not pervert justice by giving testimony to go along with the crowd. You must show impartiality in the dispute of a poor person.”
“You are not to pervert the judgment of the poor one among you in his legal case. Have nothing to do with a false accusation, and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not declare the wicked one righteous. You must not accept a bribe, for the bribe blinds clear-sighted men and can distort the words of righteous men. You must not oppress a foreign resident. You know how it feels to be a foreigner, because you were foreign residents in the land of Egypt.” Exodus 23
Dangerous man, …and certainly getting a cut of the J&J judgement.
I still believe J & J folded like a cheap suit. Im no lawyer but it seemed like there were places during trial that J & J attorneys could have objected to a lot of the nonsense brought up in the trial. This AG is only hoping for a payday like they received in the Tobacco trial. Its sickening to see the game being played on drs,pharmacies and pharmaceuticals. What will we do for medicine when these empty suits put all of them out of business?
Government workers, law, fire, all the usual hero’s will have their needs met ” to keep us safe.
The others, you and i, are of no concern.