No obligation to the public, opioid distributor tells lawyer

WASHINGTON >> An executive at one of the nation’s largest drug distribution companies said under questioning recently that the business has no obligation to the public when it comes to the amount of prescription opioid painkillers it ships.

That’s one of the exchanges included in thousands of pages of court documents, including depositions and internal emails, made public this week in lawsuits brought against the pharmaceutical industry over the nation’s deadly opioid crisis.

In a testy line of questioning in a deposition earlier this year, Cardinal Health counsel Jennifer Norris was asked by a lawyer whether the company wants to “ensure that it does what it can to prevent the public from harm?”

She answered: “I don’t know that Cardinal owes a duty to the public regarding that.”

She went on to say, “Cardinal Health has an obligation to perform its duties in accordance with the law, the statute, regulations and guidance.”

Cardinal spokeswoman Brandi Martin said in an email Wednesday that Norris was speaking only in a legal context and that the company wants to help deal with the crisis.

The deposition was held in connection with lawsuits brought by Ohio’s Cuyahoga and Summit counties against a group of drugmakers and distributors over the toll exacted by opioids. The case is scheduled for trial in October.

The counties are among some 2,000 state, local and tribal governments across the U.S. that are suing the industry over opioids, a class of drugs that includes prescription medications and illicit substances such as heroin and fentanyl.

All told, those drugs contributed to the deaths of more than 400,000 people in the U.S. from 2000 to last year, according to federal data.