Pharma will face lawsuit in Delaware, Judge rules

The troubles for Big Pharma over the opioid addiction matter continued yesterday when a Deleware judge ruled that a lawsuit will remain in the state.

United States District Court Judge Richard Andrews ruled that McKesson Corp, one of the largest drug suppliers in the United States, must continue to litigate their lawsuit in Delaware, as opposed to being moved to a Federal court, which is what McKesson sought.

McKesson faces consumer fraud, negligence, public nuisance, civil conspiracy, and unjust enrichment charges in Delaware, but McKesson lawyers argued that these charges fall under the Federal Controlled Substances Act rather than state regulations.

But the judge declined their legal logic in a stern fashion.

“In this case, the federal issues are merely elements of state common law claims,” Richards stated, according to Delaware Online.

You might be asking why a big pharmaceutical company would rather endure litigation in a federal court over a state court. For big pharmaceutical companies, cases in Federal courts are often consolidated thereby making the brunt of levied penalties a softer experience. Many big pharma companies push to move away from state civil courts and into Federal courts. But Delaware’s ruling likely sets a bit of a precedent that may work against pharmaceutical litigation strategies in other states.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster believes that the consolidation of these large court cases serves to free up court rooms and resolve the matters in a more expedited fashion.

More and more states are looking to recoup costs from resulting opioid addiction epidemics by suing pharmaceutical companies, often based on illegitimate and false marketing. Because local regions are often tasked with spending heavy amounts of money in order to help treat addiction, the lawsuits can often be asking for astronomical claim denominations.