The US Division of Justice (DOJ) Thursday filed a grievance within the US District Court docket for the Japanese District of Pennsylvania towards AmerisourceBergen Corp., a drug distributor the DOJ alleges “fueled” the nation’s opioid epidemic.
The grievance claims AmerisourceBergen, one of many nation’s largest drug distributors, repeatedly refused to satisfy its authorized obligation to report suspicious orders or alert the Drug Enforcement Company (DEA) to suspicious buyer conduct. The DOJ additionally alleges that AmerisourceBergen regularly violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) by failing to comply with the right steps for distributing opioids below the Act. The DOJ filed the grievance in civil court docket and seeks over $1 billion in damages.
AmerisourceBergen responded to the grievance in a press release that claimed the DEA was at fault for failing to successfully implement drug insurance policies. The assertion additionally highlighted how the DOJ case depends on 5 particular pharmacies, which AmerisourceBergen claims “have been cherry picked by the DOJ from the 1000’s of pharmacies AmerisourceBergen delivers medicines to.” AmerisourceBergen additionally claims they took motion to answer suspicious buyer conduct at every of those pharmacies by terminating their relationships with 4 of them previous to any DEA enforcement.
This lawsuit marks the second current main court docket case for AmerisourceBergen. The corporate was beforehand required to pay over $625 million in damages for its sale of unapproved and adulterated medication.
In response to the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, the opioid epidemic within the US has led to over 500,000 deaths since 1999, with over 100,000 of these deaths occurring inside the final yr alone.
