103 million pills prescribed: Erie County sues 5 pharmacy chains over opioid crisis

After taking four pharmaceutical distributors and a drugmaker to court over the opioid crisis, Erie County is suing five chain pharmacies, claiming they fueled the epidemic by negligently saturating the local market with prescription painkillers despite warning signs over suspicious orders.

The county is suing "to hold accountable the Chain Pharmacies that oversupplied opioids into Erie County," according to the suit, which focuses on data from 2006-2014. "The Chain Pharmacies failed to monitor and restrict the improper sale and distribution of opioids and abate the opioid epidemic in Erie County."

Citing federal data, the suit states that 103,169,505 doses of the opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone were prescribed in Erie County in 2006-2014. That amounts to "379 doses for every man, woman and child in the County," according to the suit.

The suit also states that:

● "2012 marked the height of opioid prescriptions dispensed in Erie County with 101 prescriptions dispensed for every 100 Erie County residents. This translates to over 284,000 opioid prescriptions dispensed in Erie County that year."

● "Between 2012 and the most recent numbers from 2021, 653 overdose deaths occurred in Erie County. Over 21% of the overdose deaths between 2015 and 2020 involved a prescription drug (oxycodone, alprazolam, methadone, clonazepam and hydrocodone)."

The suit names as defendants CVS, Giant Eagle, Rite Aid, Walgreens and Walmart. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and will get a chance to respond to the claims in court.

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The chain pharmacies, the suit claims, failed to put in place effective policies to avoid the diversion of opioids and the creation of a black market for pain pills. The chains, the suit claims, also "failed to effectively respond to concerns raised by their own employees regarding inadequate policies and procedures regarding the filling of opioid prescriptions."

It also claims the chain pharmacies failed "to use the data available to them to identify suspicious orders, suspicious red flag prescriptions, and to otherwise prevent or reduce the risk of diversion."

"This case," according to the suit, "arises from the worst man-made epidemic in modern American medical history — an epidemic of addiction, overdose and death caused by Defendants' flooding the United States, including Plaintiff's community, with prescription opioids."

Erie County's opioid suit similar to other counties'

The 236-page suit, filed in Erie County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday, claims negligence and unjust enrichment and claims the defendants' actions created a public nuisance and violated Pennsylvania's unfair trade practices and consumer protection law.

The case is similar to a lawsuit that led to a $650 million judgment following a jury verdict against CVS, Walgreens and Walmart in federal court in Cleveland in November. The plaintiffs in that case were Lake and Trumbull counties, both outside Cleveland. Two other defendants — Rite Aid and Giant Eagle — settled with the counties before trial.

That case represented the first national trial against national chains over the opioid crisis. Following the verdict, the judge held another hearing to determine damages and awarded the $650 million in August.

Erie County's suit is also similar to a case Allegheny County filed against CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens in July.

In the federal litigation in Ohio, Trumbull and Lake counties are to use the $650 million in damages to fight the opioid crisis. In the Erie County case, the suit seeks compensation for similar purposes, stating that the opioid crisis has caused the county to incur "expenditures for special programs over and above its ordinary municipal services."

In the Ohio case, Walmart said it will appeal.

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"Plaintiffs' attorneys sued Walmart in search of deep pockets, and this judgment follows a trial that was engineered to favor the plaintiffs’ attorneys and was riddled with remarkable legal and factual mistakes," Walmart said in a statement in response to the award.

"Instead of addressing the real causes of the opioid crisis, like pill mill doctors, illegal drugs and regulators asleep at the switch, plaintiffs’ lawyers wrongly claimed that pharmacists must second-guess doctors in a way the law never intended and many federal and state health regulators say interferes with the doctor-patient relationship."

Erie County, DA receiving settlement funds in other opioid cases

The county's suit against the pharmacies comes as it has started to receive payments in another large case related to the opioid epidemic. The county was part of a settlement involving lawsuits several states filed against three major pharmaceutical distributors — Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen — as well as opioid manufacturer Johnson & Johnson.

The county received $673,818 in September, the first of 17 payments the county will receive on an annual basis until 2039. The county is expected to receive a total of nearly $16 million from the settlement. The money must go toward opioid prevention, treatment or any of a wide range of opioid remediation uses.

Other cases:Erie County, DA office to receive first payments from landmark opioid settlement

The settlement resolves the nearly 4,000 lawsuits filed by state and local governments against the companies for what the plaintiffs claimed were the companies' roles in perpetuating the opioid crisis. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in January that all 67 counties in the state, including 241 local governments with a population of 10,000 or more, had joined the agreement, meaning the state would receive its maximum payment of $1.07 billion.

The Erie County District Attorney's Office was involved in a separate lawsuit against the same drug companies. That office is to receive about $1.8 million through 2039, with an initial payment of $217,805. The money is to fund programs for prevention, education and abatement related to the opioid crisis.

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Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper pushed to join the county lawsuit against the drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson when she was in office in 2017.

Three years later, the administration of Erie County Executive Brenton Davis is pursuing the lawsuit against the chain pharmacies. The lawyers representing the county in the suit include William Speros, the county solicitor; and lawyers with firms in Pittsburgh, West Virginia and South Carolina, according to court records.

Speros was not immediately available for comment.

Erie County's suit connects more than pharmacies in the opioid crisis

Though Erie County's new lawsuit names only the pharmacies as defendants, the case links the pharmacies to the drugmakers and distributors, claiming they are all to blame for the opioid crisis.

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"By now, most Americans have been affected, either directly or indirectly, by the opioid epidemic," according to the suit. "This crisis arose not only from the opioid manufacturers' deliberate marketing strategy, but from distributors' and pharmacies' equally deliberate efforts to evade restrictions on opioid distribution and dispensing, while also helping spread the manufacturers' false marketing messages about prescription opioids and encourage their widespread use.

"These distributors and pharmacies acted without regard for the would be trammeled in the pursuit of profit."

The suit also states: "The Chain Pharmacies were, or should have been, fully aware that the quantity of opioids being distributed and dispensed by them was untenable, and in many areas patently absurd. But they did not take meaningful action to investigate or to ensure that they were complying with their duties and obligations under the law with regard to controlled substances."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Opioid crisis: Erie County sues 5 chain pharmacies, claims negligence