KY attorney general files lawsuit accusing CVS of fueling the state’s opioid epidemic

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a lawsuit against pharmacy chain CVS Health Corporation Wednesday, accusing the pharmacy giant of fueling the state’s opioid addiction epidemic.

CVS is the latest of several pharmaceutical companies sued by Kentucky for inflaming the state’s crisis of drug addiction and overdose deaths. The companies flooded the state with pills while ignoring red flags that powerful painkillers were being diverted to illegal sales, Cameron and his predecessor, Andy Beshear, have argued in multiple lawsuits.

The lawsuit alleges “CVS played a duel role in creating, fueling, and maintaining the opioid epidemic within Kentucky’s borders” by using its retail pharmacies as dispensers of opioids and taking and shipping orders to and from those pharmacies as a wholesale distributor.

“During the height of the opioid epidemic, CVS allowed millions of dosage units of opioids to flood Kentucky’s borders, fueling the crisis and devastating thousands of families and communities across the commonwealth,” Cameron said in a statement. “As both distributor and pharmacy, CVS was in a unique position to monitor and stop the peddling of these highly-addictive drugs from their stores, yet they ignored their own safeguard systems.”

Cameron said the lawsuit holds CVS accountable for its actions, which contributed to a crisis that has killed thousands of Kentuckians.

A spokesman for CVS Health said the company is prepared to defend against Cameron’s allegations.

Michael DeAngelis, senior director of corporate communications, said in an email that opioids are made and marketed by drug manufacturers, not pharmacies, and pharmacists dispense opioid prescriptions written by licensed physicians.

According to the lawsuit, the pharmacy had more than 100 separate licenses in the state as a wholesaler, out-of-state pharmacy and retail pharmacy. From 2006 to 2014, CVS pharmacies purchased more than 151 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone — 6.1% of the total dose units in Kentucky — from its distribution center or third-party distributors.

The lawsuit offers the example of a CVS pharmacy in Hazard that bought 6.8 million dosage units of oxycodone and hydrocodone from 2006 to 2014, which was enough for every resident in Perry County to have more than 26 pills each year. A CVS in Marion bought 2.8 million doses of opioids in eight years, which was enough for everyone in Crittenden County to have 34 pills per year. A Princeton CVS supplied enough of the drugs to provide 24 pills for every Caldwell County resident each year for those eight years.

Between 2007 and 2014, CVS reported zero suspicious orders from its Kentucky stores, according to the lawsuit. In 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified Kentucky as having a statistically significant drug overdose death rate increase from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, drug overdoses accounted for more than 59% of Kentucky’s statewide accidental deaths, which is more than motor vehicle accidents, fire, drowning, and gunshot wounds combined, according to the lawsuit.

“The opioid epidemic is more than just a body count to Kentucky. It has plowed through graduating classes, work forces, and entire families, orphaning or separating children who have lost parents, aunts, uncles, and even grandparents to addiction,” the lawsuit states. “The Commonwealth of Kentucky has been left — in the wake of CVS’s actions — to restore order and remedy this public health crisis.”

DeAngelis said CVS Health has been a leader in fighting prescription opioid misuse and abuse, developing effective educational programs for patients and providers, creating thousands of safe medication disposal sites and expanding access to life-saving overdose reversal drugs.

In recent years, a rise in fentanyl use has caused overdose rates to increase. The lawsuit contends the increased opioid prescribing eventually led to a rise in heroin and fentanyl abuse for Kentuckians who could no longer legally acquire or afford prescription opioids.

The lawsuit stated CVS was not alone in causing and maintaining the opioid epidemic in the state.

Former Attorney General Andy Beshear, who is now governor, filed a lawsuit against Walgreens in 2018 for unfair, misleading and deceptive business practices. He also sued Endo Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical, Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation seeking damages based on their alleged improper drug distribution in Kentucky.

Cameron continues to pursue litigation against Walgreens, Endo Pharmaceuticals, and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Inc. for each company’s alleged role in the opioid crisis. Settlement discussions are ongoing with Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen for allegedly failing to maintain effective control over their narcotics. Claims against two other opioid producers in bankruptcy, Purdue Pharma and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, are progressing toward resolution later this year.

Earlier this year, Cameron announced a multi-million dollar settlement with McKinsey & Company for its role in the opioid crisis with Purdue Phrama.

The lawsuit was filed in Franklin Circuit Court by lawyers in the attorney general’s office and several others from the private firms of Motley Rice LLC and Morgan & Morgan. Beshear originally hired Morgan & Morgan to go after drug manufacturers in 2017. Then-Gov. Matt Bevin called Beshear out for taking campaign contributions from their lawyers and said Beshear did not award the contract properly.