Six Pharmacy Chains File Suit Against 500 Cleveland-Area Physician Prescribers
In the ongoing opioid litigation across the country, a new development: The 6 large pharmacy companies facing trial over their roles in the opioid epidemic have filed their own complaints against 500 unnamed doctors in 2 Ohio counties, arguing that the pharmacy companies should not be held responsible because they were only filling prescriptions, according to a January 7 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. (See Heisig E. Pharmacies facing trial in opioid lawsuits say doctors should be held liable for epidemic. The Plain Dealer, January 7, 2020, accessed January 12 at http://Cleveland.com, the newspaper's website.)
Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart, Discount Drug Mart, and HBC, the pharmacy wing of grocery chain Giant Eagle, filed the complaints in January 6, 2020, against unnamed doctors in Cuyahoga and Summit counties. All 6 companies are set to defend themselves at a federal trial set to begin later this year in a courtroom in Cleveland. Cuyahoga and Summit counties are the plaintiffs in the trial.
US District Court Judge Dan Polster has set an October 2020 date for the trial. In the original suit, the counties claim the pharmacy companies filled prescriptions for excessive amounts of painkillers. But the 6 companies now argue that they should not be held responsible because they were only distributing medication prescribed by doctors.
"We the pharmacies just fill the prescriptions," said Timothy Johnson, an attorney for Discount Drug Mart, as reported in the Plain Dealer. "While certainly we have a limited role in making sure it's a legitimate prescription, not stolen or forged or whatever, to the extent we can, we do that. The pharmacist is not supposed to be second guessing the medical necessity of the doctor's prescription."
The 6 companies said in their complaint against the unnamed doctors, "John and Jane Does 1-500," that they do not believe doctors and other practitioners purposefully wrote prescriptions for an excessive number of painkillers, fueling an opioid epidemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives across the nation.
Lead attorneys representing the counties suing the drug industry said in a statement that although a number of groups bear some responsibility for the opioid epidemic, "the origins of the opioid crisis and the fuel that spread the epidemic can be traced back to the behavior and practices of corporations in the drug supply chain. Without widespread wrongdoing by the opioid industry-including pharmacies-we would not be in the place we are today." (See The Advisory Board Daily Briefing. Major drugstores file lawsuit against doctors, saying they bear responsibility for the opioid epidemic. Advisory Board, via http://advisory.com. January 10, 2020. (See https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/01/10/opioid-prescriptions?)