Ohio has joined communities around the state, along with cities, counties and some other states in suing four companies that distributed prescription painkillers that they say helped fuel the deadly opioid crisis. And two of the targets of the suit are Ohio-based.
Attorney General Mike DeWine hinted at a news conference in October that this suit was coming when he said he’d sent a letter to major prescription pill distributors, asking them to help fund the fight against the epidemic that’s killing well over nine people a day in Ohio.
“These are the drug distributors, who flooded our state with pills that they knew far exceeded legitimate medical needs," DeWine says.
The suit names McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and two Ohio-based companies, Miami-Luken in Springboro and Cardinal Health in Dublin. Ohio was already suing five painkiller manufacturers. Distributors have said they only responded to demand for medicine, and point the blame back on federal drug regulators and doctors.
