Attorney General Coleman sues Express Scripts for role in opioid crisis
By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News
Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the nation, for what he called the company’s ‘key role’ in worsening the opioid crisis in Kentucky.
“The role of Express Scripts in causing the opioid epidemic has been largely concealed from public view,” says the lawsuit, which names Express Scripts and its affiliates as defendants. “But it has now become clear that, for no less than the last two decades, Express Scripts has had a key role in facilitating the oversupply of opioids through intentional conduct that disregarded needed safeguards in order to increase the prescribing, dispensing, and sales of prescription opioids.”
Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen between insurance and drug companies. PBMs determine what drugs are offered, how much someone pays for the drug, where a patient can get their drugs and how much the pharmacists are paid.
According to a news release from Coleman’s office, the lawsuit, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court, alleges that Express Scripts and its related entities “colluded with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers in deceptive marketing to increase sales of the highly-addictive drugs; took steps to restrict tools that would have limited opioid prescribing and dispensing; failed to report or address the suspicious volume of opioids flowing into Kentucky and the country; and dispensed opioids through mail order pharmacies without effective controls in violation of Kentucky and federal law.”
“The opioid-fueled drug crisis is the greatest tragedy of our lifetime. It has stolen loved ones, drained scarce public resources and inflicted generational harm on Kentucky communities large and small,” Coleman said in the release. “Express Scripts and the other pharmacy benefit managers amassed an unprecedented level of power, using it to push opioid pills and conceal unlawful activity. They must be held to account for profiting off Kentucky families’ pain.”
Bruce Schreiner with the Associated Press reports, “Express Scripts responded Friday that it has long worked to combat opioid overuse and abuse and will “vigorously contest these baseless allegations in court.”
Drug overdose deaths in Kentucky have declined for two consecutive years, falling nearly 10% in 2023. But with 1,984 overdose deaths in 2023, officials continue to stress that there is still more work to do.