Washington Seeks $95b From Opioid Distributors for Their Alleged Roles in State’s Ongoing Crisis

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Washington Opioid Distributors Lawsuit Overview:

• Who: Washington state sued drug distributors McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp., and Cardinal Health Inc.
• Why: The state accuses the companies of being partly responsible for the opioid epidemic in Washington.
• Where: The lawsuit was filed in Washington superior court.

The state of Washington is suing drug distributors McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp., and Cardinal Health Inc. for allegedly greenlighting millions of suspicious orders of narcotic painkillers and thus willfully contributing to and profiting from the state’s opioid crisis.

Led by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, the complaint lodges accusations of public nuisance and violations of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) against the three companies, which distribute the majority of opioids shipped into Washington. 

Ferguson seeks a remedy of $38.2 billion towards the abatement of the opioid epidemic’s public health and safety harms and of up to $7,500 per CPA violation, totaling around $95 billion.

At least 10,800 Washington residents died of opioid overdoses between 2006 and 2020, according to the state’s trial brief citing the Washington Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hundreds of thousands of residents have also had non-fatal overdoses, suffer from opioid use disorders, and misuse prescription opioids. 

Distributors’ Actions ‘Substantial Factor’ In Washington’s Opioid Crisis, State Says

Between 2006 and 2018, almost 10 million shipments of opioids containing over three billion opioid dosage units and over 64 billion opioid morphine milligram equivalents from McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health entered Washington, according to court documents. 

Many of these orders were “suspicious” and should have been flagged as such and not shipped, the state argues. 

The state also alleges the distributors failed in several ways to prevent suspicious orders, which are easily diverted to illegal avenues, from entering Washington. This includes failing to stop shipments of suspicious orders, perform adequate due diligence on their new and existing customers and their orders, adequately staff anti-diversion programs, and check local population and demographics against such orders. 

The opioid distributors are also accused of inflating their thresholds for suspicion and investigation, thus allowing so many suspicious orders to go through, routinely granting customers threshold increases without determining legitimacy of their increased orders, and relying on commissions-based sales representatives to flag possible diversions. 

The complaint accuses the distributors of “turning a blind eye” to known and “reasonably foreseeable” results of their actions such as the oversupply and diversion of prescription opioids, and the subsequent public health, safety and heroin addiction harms. 

Court documents also note the opioid distributors mocked “those whom their conduct was injuring,” exhibited by so-called “Hillbilly Heroin” and “SMACK/ Oxycontin for kids” emails among the AmerisourceBergen executives. 

State Seeks $95 Billion to Remedy and Prevent Harms Caused by Opioid Crisis

As part of the remedy it sees as necessary, the state first seeks $38.2 billion to fund abatement programs from 2021 to 2035.

The first category in the abatement process would be prevention by reducing opioid oversupply, improving safe opioid use, expanded education for health professionals, patients, and general public, and harm reduction. 

The second category is treatment, which involves supporting those affected by the epidemic by connecting them to treatment options, managing complications, expanding workforce, and distribution and training of Naloxone (medication used to reverse an opioid overdose). 

The third category focuses on recovery by enhancing public safety through the criminal justice system and vocational training, education, and job placement. 

The fourth and final category addresses the needs of special populations affected by the epidemic including American Indians and Alaskan Natives; pregnant women, new mothers, and infants; adolescents and young adults; homeless and housing insecure persons; and individuals with opioid misuse. 

Next, the state requests payments of up to $7,5000 per suspicious order the companies allegedly failed to conduct adequate diligence. Here, the state argues that maximum penalties are appropriate since the companies acted in bad faith, caused substantial injury to the public, obtained substantial benefit from their actions, and acted in disregard of law enforcement authority. 

The state also seeks to prevent the distributors from filling further opioid orders in Washington  that are or should be flagged for suspicion, the disgorgement of the profits the companies made from such orders, pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, and attorneys’ costs. 

Have you been affected by the opioid epidemic in Washington? What do you think of the remedies the state is seeking? Let us know in the comments below.

The state of Washington is represented by Laura Clinton, Nathan Bays, Martha Rodriguez Lopez, and Tad Robinson O’Neill of the Washington State Office of the Attorney General and by Donald A. Migliori, Linda Singer, and David Ackerman of Motley Rice LLC.

The Washington Opioid Distributors Lawsuit is State of Washington v. McKesson Corp., et al., Case No. 19-2-06975-9, in the State Of Washington King County Superior Court.

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