Attorney General Daniel Cameron filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Franklin Circuit Court against CVS Health for the company’s role in Kentucky’s opioid epidemic. The lawsuit alleges CVS engaged in unlawful business practices and failed to guard against the diversion of opioids. This is the latest action by Attorney General Cameron to hold companies accountable for their role in the Commonwealth’s opioid crisis.
According to Cameron, CVS maintained over 100 separate license numbers in the state as a “wholesaler,” “out-of-state pharmacy,” and “retail pharmacy.” Between 2006 and 2014, Cameron says CVS pharmacies in Kentucky purchase more than 151 million dosage units of oxycodone and hydrocodone from its own distribution centers and third-party distributors, accounting for nearly 6.1 percent of the total dosage units in Kentucky during this time.
Cameron says a CVS in Crittenden County bought over 2.8 million dosage units of the drugs from 2006 to 2014, enough to supply everyone in the county with over 34 pills every year.
The lawsuit argues that because CVS had a dual role in the opioid supply chain as a distributor and pharmacy, the company’s compliance with the law “was vital to safeguard consumers and control the rate of addiction, abuse, and diversion of opioids.”
Cameron’s office says despite supplying staggering quantities of opioids in Kentucky, CVS reported zero suspicious orders for its stores in the state from 2007 to 2014. In 2015, the CDC identified Kentucky as having a statistically significant drug overdose death rate increase from 2014 to 2015. In 2015, drug overdoses reportedly accounted for more than 59 percent of Kentucky’s statewide accidental deaths, which was more than motor vehicle accidents, fire, drowning, and gunshot wounds combined.
The lawsuit alleges seven claims against CVS for its role in the opioid epidemic.
