A top U.S. opioid distributor is pointing fingers at the government for the deluge of prescription painkillers that have poured into Native American communities at alarmingly high rates.
A top U.S. opioid distributor is pointing fingers at the government for the deluge of prescription painkillers that have poured into Native American communities at alarmingly high rates.
McKesson Corp., one of the country’s three big wholesale drug distributors, is embroiled in litigation brought by Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation, the country's largest tribal group, which has suffered severely from abuse and overdose. As part of its defense, the company recently pointed to its $31 billion, multiyear contract to supply drugs to the Veterans Affairs Department and other federal agencies, arguing it was just following the government’s guidance.
“It is clear that the acts for which McKesson (and the other defendants) are being sued occurred while performing its required duties for the VA and because of what it was required to do for the VA, e.g. distribute opioids in and around the alleged Tribal Area,” McKesson’s lawyers argued in a brief filed in mid-March with the U.S. court in the Eastern District of Oklahoma. Read more.
