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-