After West Virginia opioid verdict, another case postponed

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A trial in a lawsuit accusing three major U.S. drug distributors of causing a health crisis throughout West Virginia was postponed Tuesday, a day after the companies prevailed in another case in the state.

Attorneys who represented Cabell County and the city of Huntington on the losing end of a verdict announced in federal court Monday were granted a continuance of a trial a day later in Kanawha County Circuit Court. The trial involves more than 100 other cities and counties statewide against the same defendants: AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.

Attorneys for the municipalities and the companies met in the judge's chambers just prior to the start of the hearing. Once in the courtroom, attorneys for the plaintiffs asked that the start of the trial be continued. The defense had no objections and the request was approved.

In the federal bench trial, U.S. District Judge David Faber said the plaintiffs offered no evidence that the companies distributed controlled substances to any entity that didn’t hold a proper registration from the Drug Enforcement Agency or the state Board of Pharmacy. The defendants also had systems in place to monitor suspicious activity, as required by the Controlled Substances Act, he said.

“Plaintiffs failed to show that the volume of prescription opioids distributed in Cabell/Huntington was because of unreasonable conduct on the part of defendants,” Faber wrote in a decision that came nearly a year after closing arguments in that case.

The Cabell County-Huntington lawsuit alleged the distributors created a public nuisance by flooding the Ohio River community with 81 million pills over eight years. The suit sought more than $2.5 billion that would have gone toward abatement efforts. But...