Big pharma executives mocked ‘pillbillies’ in emails, West Virginia opioid trial hears

• Attorney: AmerisourceBergen executive showed contempt'
• Three companies in dock over crisis which has killed 500,000

Executives at one of the US's largest drug distributors circulated rhymes and emails mocking hillbillies" who became addicted to opioid painkillers even as the company poured hundreds of millions of pills into parts of Appalachia at the heart of America's opioid epidemic.

Related: Ground zero of the opioid epidemic': West Virginia puts drug giants on trial