Trial against opioid distributors wraps up in West Virginia

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Attorneys for major drug distributors made their final pleas to a federal judge Wednesday to absolve them while placing the blame elsewhere for a prescription pill health emergency in a part of West Virginia.

Defense attorneys tried to find holes in assertions by the plaintiffs and their witnesses as two-day closing arguments wrapped up in the bench trial of a lawsuit against distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.

In a state that has had the nation’s highest fatal opioid overdose rate, Cabell County and the city of Huntington are seeking more than $2.5 billion from the distributors that would go toward abatement efforts. A verdict isn't expected for at least three weeks.

Some 81 million pills were sent to the community of about 100,000 along the Ohio River from 2006 to 2014. The lawsuit accused the companies of creating a “public nuisance” with the onslaught and ignoring the signs that the area was being ravaged by addiction.

The companies have placed the responsibility on doctors writing prescriptions and say poor communication and pill quotas set by federal agents also were to blame.

Cardinal Health attorney Enu Mainigi tried to minimize the company’s involvement during her nearly two-hour closing argument, saying that over 32 days at trial, the court heard little about its conduct.

“None of the evidence shows Cardinal Health’s conduct was unreasonable,” Mainigi said. “There’s no witness that has given the court a basis to find that we were a direct cause.”

She also said distributors are not responsible for the diversion of pills from patients into others' hands, whether that medication is sold, stolen or given away.

“That's a crime," she said. “And Cardinal Health can’t stop any of that from...