CHARLESTON – As the landmark opioid trial continues, lawyers brought in a former AmerisourceBergen’s sales executive to ask what he knew about more than 32 million prescription pain pills being shipped to Huntington and the rest of Cabell County over an eight-year span.
The City of Huntington and the Cabell County Commission sued three of the nation’s top pharmaceutical distribution companies – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson – in 2017 seeking compensation over claims the companies helped fuel the opioid epidemic by sending more than 81 million controlled substances to the county between 2006 and 2014.
On May 19, defense attorney Eric Kennedy called Michael Perry, a retired AmerisourceBergen (ABDC) sales executive of about 40 years. Perry did direct sales that included all pharmaceuticals and other-the-counter medications to pharmacies with territories varying in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Perry testified that he had roughly 65-
CHARLESTON – As the federal trial against three major opioid distributors continued, data showing pharmacies in Huntington and Cabell County were ordering well above the national average of controlled substances, some ordering more than five times the national average.
Cabell County and the City of Huntington sued the three largest pharmaceutical distribution companies – AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corp. – in 2017 claiming the companies were largely responsible for the opioid crisis after the companies shipped more than 81 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to the county of just 100,000 residents between 2006 and 2014.
At the start of the May 18 testimony, officials from AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health objected to the number of documents the plaintiffs were presenting for possible use during examination the previous evening, stating it was unfair that the plaintiffs did not give a subset list of the known documents to be used during questi
Top officials at AmerisourceBergen sent emails disparaging those who have gotten hooked off of their products, court documents show. It is being sued by West Virginia officials.
Wave of ‘pillbillies’ headed for Alabama, pharma executive joked during opioid epidemic
Updated 10:37 AM;
Today 10:37 AM
Litigation continues over the damage done by excessive distribution of OxyContin, shown, and other opioids. (Photo by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag
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“Watch out Georgia and Alabama,” a pharmaceutical executive wrote at the height of the prescription opioid crisis. “There will be a mass exodus of Pillbillies heading north.”
In other emails cited by prosecutors, as reported by The Mountain State Spotlight, employees at pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen repeatedly mocked addicts as pillbillies and hillbillies; referred to Kentucky as “OxyContinville,” a twist on the Jimmy Buffett song “Margaritaville;” and even lampooned the “Beverly Hillbillies” theme song with a version in which Jed travels in search of pills.
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A court case against the nation’s three largest pharmaceutical distributors revealed emails in which executives of big pharmaceutical companies ridiculed and mocked the victims of West Virginia’s opioid epidemic, according to Mountain State Spotlight.
Cabell County attorney Paul Farrell Jr. showed the emails some of which mocked the addicts as ‘pillbillies’ as evidence during the trial in Charleston, West Virginia, the outlet reported. Farrell, who represents the county and the city of Huntington, contends that the companies facilitated the addictions and the subsequent opioid crisis.
Drug executive emails mocked Appalachians as “pillbillies” https://t.co/XmIUWmSFHL