West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey stopped by the Logan County Commission and addressed commissioners on the near $1 billion recovered from opioid lawsuits with pharmacy retailers, distributors and manufacturers.
AM Stone | WVOW News
LOGAN Fresh off the more than $80 million settlement with Walgreens, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey visited Boone and Logan counties this week.
Morrisey visits the coalfields rather often but hasn’t been down in the area in some time. The attorney general’s office has been busy with lawsuits against some of the most well-known pharmacy distributors, manufacturers and retailers. Walmart, CVS, Johnson & Johnson as well as many more have all settled cases for hundreds of millions of dollars
Mr. Morrisey announced the state settled its opioid lawsuit against national pharmacy chain Walgreens for $83 million last Wednesday, January 18. The settlement will pay out over the next eight years.
Mr. Morrisey told commissioners during their regular session Monday, January 23, the state has settled payments totaling in the ten digits.
“I’m here to report some very positive news. As a result of the collaboration with municipalities and every single county in West Virginia, we’ve been able to recover over $1 billion to attack the opioid epidemic.”
Morrisey said the total amount, including $27 million worth of naloxone from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, is first in the nation per-capita.
Morrisey credits his office’s rejection of the national settlements for the state’s position to receive more awards in litigation individually.
A Memorandum of Understanding with all 55 counties sets out the parameters for how the money will be spent. 72.5% of the money will be handled by the West Virginia First Foundation consisting of governor appointed and senate approved representatives to implement prevention and treatment programs statewide.
Local governments will split 25% of the money.
A trial is scheduled for June in the last case, and this time against Kroger. The case alleges the company failed to report suspicious pharmacy orders and no monitoring policy.