A federal judge has ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit filed in West Virginia. Judge David Faber issued the ruling on Monday nearly a year after closing arguments were held in a bench trial in a lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington.
The suit accused AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson of causing a health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in a county ravaged by opioid addiction. Faber says that while the opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll, such cases should be decided on the facts and the law, not sympathy.
“The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington. And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law,” U.S. District Judge David Faber wrote in the 184-page ruling. “In view of the court’s findings and conclusions, the court finds that judgment should be entered in defendants’ favor.”