Fort Wayne, IN (WOWO) Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has filed a lawsuit against three drug distributors responsible for the majority of opioids sold to Indiana Pharmacies. Amerisource-Bergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation.
The Attorney General’s complaint alleges that the companies violated Indiana law by designing flawed systems that failed to identify, report and prevent suspicious shipments of opioids, failing to adhere to the terms of their own anti-diversion programs for opioids and that they unfairly and deceptively marketed prescription opioids. Hill said that the companies “profited handsomely – to the tune of billions of dollars nationally – by their unlawful conduct.”
Indiana has had one of the highest rates of opioid prescribing and diversion in the nation. According to the Attorney General, from 2012 to 2016, Indiana had 58 counties with opioid prescribing rates above 100 prescriptions per 100 residents per year.
As of 2012, Indiana had the ninth highest rate of opioid prescriptions per capita, and the fifth highest rate of diversion. Between 2012 and 2016, more than 3,000 Hoosiers died from opioid overdoses.
