Five drug wholesalers have agreed to a $4.2 million settlement in connection with a lawsuit alleging that they shipped an excessive number of prescription opioids in West Virginia. The five wholesalers, Anda Inc., The Harvard Drug Group, Associated Pharmacies, KeySource Medical Inc., and Quest Pharmaceuticals, all deny the allegations in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, initiated in 2012, was filed by then-Attorney General Darrell McGraw and involved twelve prescription drug wholesalers. The companies allegedly distributed painkillers to notorious “pill mill” pharmacies in West Virginia’s smallest towns and poorest counties.
Between 2007 and 2012, Associated Pharmacies shipped 2.7 million doses of hydrocodone and 266.700 oxycodone pills to West Virginia. During those same years, KeySource Medical distributed 1.2 million hydrocodone pills and 905,000 oxycodone tablets.
Other companies involved also sold large amounts of pain pills over a short period of time. H.D. Smith Drug Wholesale Co. allegedly sold 39,000 pain pills over the course of just two days to two Mingo County “sham” pharmacies located within four blocks of one another. Top Rx, another prescription drug distributor, shipped over 300,000 tables of hydrocodone over the course of four years to a town with a population of 808, amounting to 350 hydrocodone pills per person in that small town.
AmerisourceBergen shipped 60.9 million hydrocodone tablets and 26.6 million oxycodone tablets to West Virginia, amounting to 33 hydrocodone pills and 15.5 oxycodone pills for every man, woman and child in West Virginia. In 2009 alone, AmerisourceBergen sold 149,000 hydrocodone pills to just one pharmacy – three doctors who wrote prescriptions at that pharmacy were indicted on federal charges the following year. Over two days in 2012, AmerisourceBergen shipped 8,000 hydrocodone pills to a “drive in” pharmacy.
According to Lauren Moyer, a company spokeswoman,
At AmerisourceBergen, we are committed to the safe and efficient delivery of controlled substances to meet the medical needs of patients. We work diligently to combat diversion and are working closely with regulatory agencies and other partners in pharmaceutical and healthcare delivery to help find solutions that will support appropriate access while limiting misuse of controlled substances.
Masters Pharmaceuticals supplied 11,400 oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine pills to a pharmacy in a town with 211 residents between December 2011 and May 2012, amounting to 63 pills per resident, per day, during that time period.
The drug wholesalers have previously attempted to defend themselves, stating that the raw pill counts are misleading. The companies argue that their total distribution numbers, and the percent of sales of controlled substances compared to all drugs, would put the shipping records in a better context.
The settlement amount varied from company to company, ranging from $250,000 each for KeySource Medical and Quest Pharmaceuticals to $850,000 for Associated Pharmacies to $1 million with the Harvard Drug Group and $1.9 million to Anda.
West Virginia has the highest drug overdose death rate in the country, with oxycodone and hydrocodone acting as the most widely abused prescription painkillers. West Virginia spends over $430 million a year on various problems caused by prescription drug abuse.
Litigation against the remaining defendants (with the exception of Miami-Luke, which previously settled for $2.5 million) continues in Boone County Circuit Court. Boone Circuit Judge William Thompson is allowing companies that settle to keep certain information “secret” about pill shipments to specific pharmacies in southern West Virginia.