A judge in West Virginia ruled that three of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors were not responsible for contributing to the opioid crisis in a community among the hardest hit.
District Judge David Faber rejected a bid by the city of Huntington and Cabell County to make McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health pay $2.5 billion to address the opioid crisis. The communities argued the drug companies were responsible for shipping millions of addictive pain pills to the region where more than 500,000 overdose deaths have been recorded in the past two decades.
“The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington. And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law,” Faber wrote in his ruling. “In view of the court’s findings and conclusions, the court finds that judgment should be entered in defendants’ favor.”
Faber argued that while the crisis had taken a toll on the region, the increase in pills was due partially to “good faith dispensing” as well as an uptick in product thresholds put in place by the Drug Enforcement Administration. He argued that public nuisance statutes had been wrongly applied in the case, which had its monthslong trial conclude last year, according to court records.
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Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said the community had “placed our faith within the judicial system” and had a strong respect for Faber, so the ruling left him “disappointed beyond measure” and “feeling awfully hollow inside.”
“I’m more determined than ever and we will carry on,” Williams said Tuesday in an interview with MetroNews, declining to say whether he would appeal the decision.
Monday’s ruling had an immediate ripple effect on a separate West Virginia trial that was set to begin on Tuesday, which pitted the same drug distributors against more than 60 other cities and counties at the Kanawha County Courthouse.
Attorneys for the municipalities successfully asked a judge Tuesday to postpone the trial, with no objections from the drug companies. A new trial date has not been set.
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The West Virginia decision adds to a complicated court record for opioid cases. Monday’s ruling resembles outcomes in Oklahoma and California courts last year that rejected claims against pharmaceutical makers such as Johnson & Johnson.
However, in November, a federal jury found pharmacy chain operators Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walmart, and CVS Health liable in a case filed by two Ohio counties. Additionally, a New York jury found Teva Pharmaceutical Industries liable in December in a case by the state and two counties.
Earlier, West Virginia reached a tentative settlement of $161.5 million on May 25 with Teva Pharmaceuticals, AbbVie’s Allergan, and their family companies as well as a $26 million tentative settlement on March 30 with Endo Health Solutions.
