A Circuit Court judge in Boone County has rejected a drug wholesalers’ bid to dismiss a lawsuit that accuses drug companies of flooding West Virginia with pain pills.
In a ruling this week, Judge William Thompson ruled the case should proceed to trial, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Eleven drug companies had argued West Virginia did not have sufficient grounds to sue them, so they could not be held accountable for the state’s prescription drug problem.
The lawsuit was initially filed by in 2012. It alleges that the drug wholesalers shipped an excessive number of painkillers to “pill mill” pharmacies in West Virginia. The lawsuit also contends the companies failed to report the “suspicious” orders to government authorities.
West Virginia has the highest prescription drug overdose death rate in the nation.
