A federal judge has agreed to delay a major opioid trial in Charleston because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Judge David Faber issued an order continuing the trial until Jan. 4, 2021. Faber said he would file another memorandum elaborating on his reasons.
The trial to determine how wholesalers McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen should be accountable for the costs of opioid addiction in West Virginia communities originally was scheduled to start Oct. 19.
The wholesalers deny wrongdoing.
The plaintiffs include the Cabell County Commission and City of Huntington, which contend the companies compounded the drug crisis by saturating the region with shipments of prescription painkillers.
On behalf of the communities, the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the National Prescription Opiate Litigation had argued that the trial should not be postponed. Today, they expressed disappointment.
The City of Huntington and Cabell County, West Virginia, and the thousands of other communities impacted by the opioid epidemic deserve their day in court,” they wrote.
“In scale and severity, opioid addiction presents one of the gravest public health crises in American history, and it has now been exacerbated further by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing increases in overdoses across the country.”
They said reaching a resolution through a trial is urgent for communities who need resources to address the ongoing opioid epidemic. “This case will go to trial as soon as the Court will allow and we will be ready.”
In a motion filed on Monday, the wholesalers wrote that back in May, when the trial date was first set, Kanawha County’s rate of covid-19 cases was just 1.44 per 100,000 people.
“Since late June, however, Covid cases here have soared,” wrote lawyers for the wholesalers.
Within the past week, they wrote, the county’s new-case rate rose to 29.75 per 100,000—20 times higher than when the trial date was set and more than double the national rate.
“The national events of the last few days only serve to underscore the risks of bringing together large groups of people from across the country who might unwittingly infect each other and could serve as a ‘superspreader’ event in Charleston.
“It is untenable and unduly risky to commence a 12-week trial involving scores of participants in a county where the Covid-19 rate is so persistently high that officials are requesting field hospitals.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2017, blames the “Big Three” for fueling the crisis by distributing nearly 100 million opioid pills in Cabell County over a 10-year period.
The case was part of a group of similar cases being considered in federal court in Cleveland but was released back to U.S. District Court in West Virginia’s Southern District late last year.