Approximately 80 million prescription pain relievers were dispensed in Trumbull County between 2012 and 2016, 400 for each county resident, while 61 million pills were dispensed in Lake County during that five-year period, 265 pills for each resident. .
How much money should CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies pay two Ohio counties in damages to help mitigate the effects of the opioid crisis?
That is the question in front of a federal judge in Cleveland, who will begin hearing testimony Tuesday after a jury found the three giant pharmacy chains responsible last fall for recklessly distributing massive amounts of painkillers in Lake and Trumbull counties. . It was the first time that America’s pharmacies had been held responsible for the opioid crisis.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys said before trial that each county needs about $1 billion to repair damage from the pill rush, which has led to hundreds of overdose deaths.
Approximately 80 million prescription pain relievers were dispensed in Trumbull County between 2012 and 2016, 400 for each county resident, while 61 million pills were dispensed in Lake County during that five-year period, 265 pills for each resident. .
In November, a jury in US District Judge Dan Polster’s courtroom sided with the counties, agreeing that the way pharmacies dispensed painkillers played a significant role in creating a public nuisance.
Now, the counties are expected to present testimony from doctors to discuss the harm suffered by those communities, the effect of the opioid crisis on child welfare and other county agencies, and an abatement plan created for the counties.
“The jury rang a bell that should be heard in every pharmacy in America,” said Mark Lanier, the counties’ lead attorney, after the November verdict.
In the US, many lawsuits brought by governments over the cost of drugs have been resolved in recent years, most with settlements and some with sentences or verdicts in court. So far, drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies have struck deals totaling more than $40 billion, according to an Associated Press tally.
Trials are ongoing in courts in West Virginia, Florida and California. A decision has not yet been issued after another trial last year in West Virginia.
According to an April 25 court filing, the abatement plan created for Lake and Trumbull counties by Dr. Caleb Alexander of the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “are reasonable and necessary to reduce the public nuisance encountered by the jury”.
The plan focuses on prevention, treatment, recovery and “measures intended to specifically address the needs of special populations that have been uniquely affected by the opioid epidemic,” according to the court filing.
Lawyers for Walgreens and Walmart argued in a court filing that the counties’ $878 million reduction plan should be limited to one year and not the five-year minimum the counties argue they need. One of the pharmacy chain experts estimated the true cost at $346 million, while another expert said it was less than $35 million, according to the filing.
Defense attorneys also argued that damages caused by other entities that contributed to the public nuisance of opioid addiction should be excluded from the amounts awarded by Polster and that those costs should be limited to the “appropriate share of the contribution to the hassle” of pharmacies.
The drugstore chain Rite-Aid reached a settlement with the counties in early October before the trial began. Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle reached a settlement with the counties in late October after the trial began.
There were nearly 500,000 deaths caused by legal and illegal opioids between 2000 and 2019, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.