Kentucky filed a lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen Corp. claiming that it used unfair, misleading and deceptive business practices for excessively distributing opioids in the state.
Attorney General Andy Beshear also claimed in the lawsuit, filed in Floyd Circuit Court, that the drug distributor failed to legally report suspiciously large volumes of opioid drugs to state and federal authorities.
Beshear, who previously sued Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. for their role in the national opioid epidemic, said the Pennsylvania-based drug distributor played a major role in fueling the state's opioid epidemic.
AmerisourceBergen is presumed to supply nearly 32% of opioids in Kentucky. Together, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal and McKesson control 85% of the prescription drug market in the country, according to Beshear.
"We must stop these large supplies of opioids fueling addiction in so many of our communities," the attorney general stated. "One way to do that is to continue to drag these billion-dollar opioid distributors into Kentucky court to seek damages for their irresponsible actions," he added.
Beshear said the company's hold on the market created "dangerous levels" of opioids in Kentucky communities across the state.
In February, the company was named, along with McKesson, Cardinal and Miami-Luken Inc., in a lawsuit by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine over the companies' role in the opioid epidemic.
AmerisourceBergen also recently settled a lawsuit by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey for $16 million. The suit claimed that the company oversupplied West Virginia as a total of 132 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone were distributed to the state from 2007 to 2012, according to the news release.
