There is "certainly culpability" among the drugmakers because of the representations they had made about the medications, according to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who late last week filed suits against opioid makers Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA.
"There is a role for the wholesalers, the pharmacies, the prescribers," Morrisey, whose state has the highest number of opioid overdose deaths in the country, told Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime." "All of those entities bear some responsibility for the problems we have."
In addition, the federal government itself bears responsibility, as the DEA had approved an "ever-increasing number of pills," Morrisey said. "That was part of the problem. I think when we look at it and step back, people see that manufacturers have a role to play in fixing this problem that they did help to create. But it's not as simple to say that only one company or one entity is responsible for everything."
In the lawsuits, filed in Boone County, West Virginia, the drugmakers are accused of violating the state's Consumer Credit and Protection Act. J&J subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Teva's sister company, Cephalon, have also been named as co-defendants.
"West Virginia has really been hit very hard by this opioid crisis," Morrisey said. "Our goal is to hold everyone responsible. The manufacturers play an important role. We are not saying the only role. Prescribers still prescribed, pharmacy still dispense, wholesalers transport. But manufacturers did make it and helped to see not only prescribers but consumers about the nature of the products."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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