Distributors didn’t fuel opioid epidemic in West Virginia, judge rules

Doctors' good faith' prescribing decisions drove volume of painkillers shipped to pharmacies, says district judge David Faber

The US's three largest pharmaceutical distributors were not responsible for fueling an opioid epidemic in a part of West Virginia, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

District judge David Faber rejected efforts by the city of Huntington and Cabell County to force McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health to pay $2.5bn to address a drug crisis prompted by a flood of addictive pills in their region.