CHARLESTON – A class action lawsuit has been filed against Purdue Pharma for babies who were born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, a condition suffered by babies of mothers addicted to opioids.
Purdue Pharma L.P.; Purdue Pharma Inc.; the Purdue Frederick Company Inc.; McKesson Corporation; Cardinal Health Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corporation; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.; Cephalon Inc.; Johnson & Johnson; Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc.; Endo Health Solutions Inc.; Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Allergan PLC; Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc.; Watson Laboratories Inc.; Actavis LLC; and Actavis Pharma Inc. were all named as defendants in the suit.
Walter Salmons and Virginia Salmons filed the lawsuit on behalf of W.D., a minor child, and all others similarly situated, according to the suit, which was filed March 2 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
“Like thousands of children born every year, minor W.D. was born addicted to opioids,” the complaint states. “Prenatal exposure to opioids causing severe withdrawal symptoms and lasting developmental impacts.”
The plaintiffs claim W.D. was born four months ago and the first days of his life were spent in excruciating pain as doctors weaned the infant from opioid addiction.
W.D. will require years of treatment and counseling to deal with the effects of prenatal exposure, according to the suit.
“Minor W.D. and his mother are victims of the opioid crisis that has ravaged West Virginia, causing immense suffering to those born addicted to opioids and great expense to those forced to deal with the aftermath,” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs claim at birth, W.D. was diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and was forced to endure a painful start to his life; crying excessively, arching his back, refusing to feed and shaking.
NAS is a clinical diagnosis, and “a consequence of the abrupt discontinuation of chronic fetal exposure to substances that were used or abused by the mother during pregnancy.”
“Minor W.D.’s mother began her addiction before 2016, before minor W.D.’s gestation, she had had a prescription for the opioid medication and she also obtained opioids via the diversionary market,” the complaint states.
W.D.’s mother consumed opioids manufactured and/or distributed by the defendants, according to the suit.
“Minor W.D.’s experience is part of an opioid epidemic sweeping through the United States, including West Virginia that has caused thousands of infants great suffering and continuing developmental issues,” the complaint states. “This epidemic is the largest health care crisis in U.S. history.”
The plaintiffs claim they are bringing the class action to eliminate the hazard to public health and safety caused by the opioid epidemic and to abate the nuisance caused by the defendants’ false, negligent and unfair marketing and/or unlawful diversion of prescription opioids.
“Plaintiffs further seek the equitable relief of medical monitoring to provide this class of infants the monitoring of developmental issues that will almost inevitably appear as they grow older and equitable relief in the form of funding for services and treatment,” the complaint states.
The incidence of NAS in newborns born to opioid-dependent women is between 70 and 95 percent, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs claim the NAS epidemic and its consequences could have been, and should have been, prevented by the defendants who control the U.S. drug distribution industry and the defendants who manufacture the prescription opioids.
“These Defendants have profited greatly by allowing West Virginia to become flooded with prescription opioids,” the complaint states. “The drug distribution industry is supposed to serve as a ‘check’ in the drug delivery system, by securing and monitoring opioids at every step of the stream of commerce, protecting them from theft and misuse, and refusing to fulfill suspicious or unusual orders by downstream pharmacies, doctors, clinics or patients.”
The defendants woefully failed in this duty, instead consciously ignoring known or knowable problems and data in their supply chains, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs claim the defendants intentionally and negligently created conditions in which vast amounts of opioids have flowed freely from drug manufacturers to innocent patients who became addicted, to opioid abusers and even to illicit drug dealers—with distributors regularly fulfilling suspicious orders from pharmacies and clinics, who were economically incentivized to ignore “red flags” at the point of sale and before dispensing the pills.
“Defendants’ wrongful conduct has allowed billions of opioid pills to be diverted from legitimate channels of distribution into the illicit black market in quantities that have fueled the opioid epidemic in West Virginia,” the complaint states. “This is characterized as ‘opioid diversion.’”
The plaintiffs claim acting against their common law and statutory duties, the defendants have created an environment in which opioid diversion is rampant.
As a result, unknowing patients and unauthorized opioid users have ready access to illicit sources of diverted opioids, according to the suit.
The plaintiffs are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as medical monitoring and a fund that would be released to the children when they turned 18. The plaintiffs are represented by Kevin W. Thompson and David R. Barney Jr. of Thompson Barney.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 2:18-cv-00385
