Federal prosecutors Thursday sued one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, alleging that the company repeatedly violated federal drug laws and helped fuel the nation’s deadly opioid crisis.
In a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania against AmerisourceBergen and two subsidiaries, the Justice Department accused the company of ignoring warning signs and allowing its opioid pills to spill into the black market.
Justice Department officials described the lawsuit as part of its larger efforts to hold accountable the companies and individuals who have inflamed the nation’s opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and The Justice Department described the shortcomings at the company as “systemic” and outlined in the lawsuit how it believes the internal safeguards at AmerisourceBergen declined in recent years. In 2014, the company implemented a new internal monitoring system that was intended to flag suspicious orders. Prosecutors allege in the lawsuit that the program was designed to detect fewer suspicious orders than its previous system.
In 2014, the department’s budget was $4 million — less than what it spent on taxicabs that year and less than half of what the company’s CEO was paid, according to the suit.Esposito said the company’s compliance diversion control program has operated in compliance with federal law for decades. She citedthat rejected claims that AmerisourceBergen and two other pharmaceutical distributors bore responsibility for the consequences of an inundation of opioids in West Virginia.
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