A national pharmacy benefit manager has been added to a lawsuit filed by the Kentucky attorney general’s office alleging deceptive business practices that contributed to the opioid addiction crisis.
Attorney General Russell Coleman recently added OptumRx and its affiliates to a complaint filed in September against Express Scripts, another prescription benefit manager, in Jessamine Circuit Court. Pharmacy benefit managers work as intermediaries between drug manufacturers, pharmacies and health insurers.
“No state has been harder hit by the drug crisis than Kentucky. Last year alone, nearly 2,000 Kentuckians died of a drug overdose,” Coleman said in a press release. “These groups pushed a profit-fueled agenda at the expense of Kentucky families, who are left with empty seats at the dinner table. Our Office will continue to hold those behind the drug crisis accountable for their devastating actions.”
The suit alleges that Express Scripts and OptumRx used deceptive marketing to increase sales of highly addictive drugs, took steps to restrict tools that would have limited the prescription and dispensing of opioids, and dispensed opioids through mail order pharmacies without effective controls in violation of Kentucky and federal law.
