Companies Urge US Judge Seized of Opioid Trial to Disqualify

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Major wholesalers and drug retailers facing a major dispute over allegedly promoting the opioid crisis in the United States have asked the judge in the case to withdraw on Saturday.

The companies argued in court that US District Judge Dan Polster, who appeared in federal court in Cleveland, Ohio, had made statements stating that he was not impartial in the case and had unduly pushed the companies to settle themselves. go to trial.

The companies said that Judge Polster also made inappropriate public comments about the case, including to reporters.

Opioids have been implicated in 400,000 overdose deaths from 1999 to 2017, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the filing, the companies indicated that the plaintiffs had claimed $ 8 billion. The defendants in the case include McKesson Corp (MCK.N), AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N), Walgreen Co and Walmart Inc (WMT.N).

"The accused do not bring this request lightly. As a whole and viewed objectively, the record clearly demonstrates that recusal is necessary, "said the companies in a document filed Saturday in court.

In particular, the companies said that on January 9, 2018, at the first hearing, Polster had declared that the country was facing an "opioid crisis," adding that "150 Americans will die today, today. Still, while we are in a meeting.

"(E) everyone shares some of the responsibility and no one has done enough to reduce it," he said, including "manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, doctors, the federal government and state governments, hospitals.

"My goal is to do something meaningful to mitigate this crisis," he said at the hearing, according to the record.

The challenge comes a few days after Judge Polster approved the contents of a proposal by city and county lawyers to sue pharmaceutical companies over the US opioid epidemic, which would all States and all municipalities in the country in their settlement negotiations.

The proposal, which is part of a lawsuit involving around 2,000 lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, retailers and other parties claiming damages for the outbreak, calls for to the creation of a class comprising up to 3,000 counties and 30,000 cities and towns that can decide on the acceptance of a settlement. the plaintiffs reach the defendants.

Any proposed regulations would need the support of at least 75% of the group members to be approved.