AG Targets Distributors, Not Doctors or Drug Makers, for Inflating State's Painkiller Problem

While efforts to reduce the misuse, overuse and abuse of prescription painkillers across the country have often targeted doctors and drug manufacturers, the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office is looking in another direction – to the companies that distribute the medications. In State of West Virginia v. AmerisourceBergen et al., the Attorney General’s Office has charged 12 drug distribution companies with negligence that has contributed to the state’s wave of prescription painkiller abuse. The result of such abuse, the state argues in its initial complaint, is...