Two more drug wholesalers have agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that they shipped an excessive number of prescription opioids to West Virginia.
KeySource Medical and Associated Pharmacies will become the second and third drug distributors to settle with Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office, according to proposed orders filed this week in Boone County Circuit Court.
Morrisey's office would not disclose how much the companies agreed to pay the state to settle the case. A Morrisey spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Between 2007 and 2012, Associated Pharmacies shipped 2.7 million doses of the powerful painkiller hydrocodone and 266,700 oxycodone pills to West Virginia, according to the lawsuit.
During those same years, KeySource Medical distributed 1.2 million hyrdocodone pills (sold under brand names like Vicodin and Lortab) and 905,000 oxycodone tablets.
Then-Attorney General Darrell McGraw filed the lawsuit against a dozen prescription drug wholesalers in 2012. The state Department of Health and Human Resources and Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety later joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.
In January, Morrisey recused himself from the case, following a state Lawyer Disciplinary Board investigation. Before taking office, Morrisey lobbied for a Washington, D.C., trade group that represents prescription drug wholesalers. The disciplinary board concluded that Morrisey did not violate any lawyer ethics rules, but the board suggested he step aside from the drug company lawsuit to avoid any appearance of impropriety.
That same month, drug wholesaler Miami-Luken agreed to pay the state $2.5 million to settle its dispute. Miami-Luken denied any wrongdoing.
Additional settlements are expected in the coming weeks.
Boone Circuit Judge William Thompson is allowing companies that settle with Morrisey's office to keep secret information about pill shipments to specific pharmacies in Southern West Virginia, according to an order issued last month.
At least six drug wholesalers, including KeySource Medical and Associated Pharmacies, have scrambled to settle their cases in recent weeks.
Thompson's ruling followed a Charleston Gazette-Mail request to unseal court documents filed by the state against the drug firms. The unsealed documents included details of drug shipments from four wholesalers that declined to settle with the state.
The documents showed that the companies distributed painkillers to notorious "pill mill" pharmacies in West Virginia's smallest towns and poorest counties.
Thompson redacted pill shipment details for Miami-Luken, Associated Pharmacies and KeySource Medical and four other drug firms actively negotiating settlements with Morrisey's office.
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.