Justice Department sues AmerisourceBergen for role in opioid crisis

Investigators say the pharmaceutical manufacturer, one of the largest in the country, knowingly distributed opioids which were then illegally resold.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday against AmerisourceBergen, one of the nation's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, accusing the company of knowingly distributing opioids that have then illegally resold.

The lawsuit, filed by the department's Civil Division in conjunction with federal prosecutors in New Jersey, Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York , is part of a growing effort by federal agencies to hold drug companies accountable for their role in the nation's opioid crisis. It accuses AmerisourceBergen and two of its subsidiaries of "at least hundreds of thousands" of controlled substance law violations. If the company is found liable, it could face billions of dollars in fines, according to Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general overseeing the civil division.

En Under federal law, wholesale drug distributors like AmerisourceBergen are required to report "suspicious" orders for controlled substances to the Drug Enforcement Administration. An order is considered suspicious if it is of an unusual size or does not follow the normal pattern or frequency, or if it raises other concerns, such as the legitimacy of a customer's business.

In an 80-page lawsuit, filed in federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department accused AmerisourceBergen of failing to report many of these suspicious orders during nearly a decade, in what he described as a "gross failure". that had contributed to the opioid epidemic.

More than 90,000 people died in the United States from drug overdoses in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioids were implicated in nearly 75% of those deaths.

In the complaint, investigators cited five examples of violations, including at two pharmacies, one in Florida and one in West Virginia, where they said AmerisourceBergen knew its drugs were likely sold in parking lots for cash. They also cited violations involving New Jersey pharmacies whose employees had been charged with drug offenses.

A fifth pharmacy in Colorado was largest buyer of 30 milligram oxycodone tablets. in the state; investigators said AmerisourceBergen knew about this and continued to supply the pharmacy, even though 11 of its customers were identified as possibly drug addicts. At least two of them later died of drug overdoses, according to the complaint.

The trial is separate from a federal criminal investigation into the actions of the and a $26 billion settlement reached in February by several pharmaceutical companies, including Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based AmerisourceBergen, in thousands of civil lawsuits in state court related to the opioid crisis. /p>

"For years, AmerisourceBergen has put its profits from the sale of opioids ahead of the safety of Americans," said Philip R. Sellinger, the U.S. district attorney of New Jersey, during a call with reporters.

"This was part of a brazen, egregious and systemic misconduct by one of America's largest corporations to comply with its obligations to report suspicious orders for opioids, contributing to the epidemic of opioid abuse nationwide," he added.

Jacqueline C. Romero, the U.S. Advocate for Easter n District of Pennsylvania, said the allegations against the company were particularly concerning, given that its headquarters were only a few miles from the neighborhood...