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- Utah is suing UnitedHealth Group and Express Scripts over their alleged roles in the opioid crisis.
- The lawsuit claims these companies facilitated opioid sales, worsening addiction and causing overdoses.
- The Utah Attorney General's Office says the companies are a public nuisance and engage in deceptive trade practices.
PARK CITY — The Utah Attorney General's Office and the Utah Division of Consumer Protection filed a lawsuit Monday against two of the nation's largest companies that manage prescription drug benefits.
"The suit alleges that UnitedHealth Group and Express Scripts and their subsidiaries played a significant role in the opioid epidemic through powerful positions as intermediaries between manufacturers, pharmacies, insurance companies, payers, and patients," the attorney general's office announced.
The nearly 100-page lawsuit was filed in Summit County's 3rd District Court.
"This litigation is part of Utah's ongoing effort to combat the worst human-made epidemic in modern medical history: opioid diversion, addiction, overdose, and death caused by an oversupply of opioids flooding communities due to powerful companies who sought to profit at the expense of the public," the lawsuit states.
The suit alleges the two pharmacy benefit managers have "substantially contributed to a quadrupling of the number of prescription opioids sold annually in the United States and a tripling of the number of Utahns who died from prescription opioid overdose."
Pharmacy benefit managers are third-party companies that manage prescription drug-benefit plans sponsored by health insurers. But instead of "using their role in crafting national formularies and benefit plans to place meaningful restrictions and safety conditions on opioids," the lawsuit contends that the companies "gave opioids preferred status on their formularies with little to no limits on their use and consumption. (They) deliberately chose to facilitate the increased sale and consumption of opioids in exchange for payments from opioid manufacturers like Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt, and others."
Those who become addicted to opioids often turn to heroin and fentanyl when they can no longer obtain pain pills, according to the lawsuit.
"In 2014 alone, the volume of opioids sold in Utah would provide every state resident roughly 34 pills," according to the lawsuit. "The effects of this epidemic have heavily strained the state of Utah's public resources. ... The consequences of this public health crisis have been far-reaching and severe — and they are still ongoing."
The state is suing UnitedHealth Group and Express Scripts under Utah's public nuisance statute and the Consumer Sales Practices Act which alleges "deceptive trade practices."
"Over the past decade, it has been one of my top priorities in the attorney general's office to hold accountable those who unleashed the opioid epidemic upon Utah and America. For far too long, opioids were misrepresented as safe, as they ripped apart families, trapped users, and killed innocent victims," Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said Monday in a prepared statement. "Our unrelenting litigation strategies have resulted in over $540 million coming back to Utah to address the horrific effects of this public health crisis. Today, we begin to hold yet another group to account."
"Pharmacy benefit managers have played a covert role in the opioid abuse crisis. We support efforts to unveil these hidden collaborations with pharmaceutical manufacturers, as transparency is essential for accountability and building trust within our community," Margaret Busse, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, added. "Opioid abuse has had a devastating impact on the lives of many Utahns, and they deserve justice."
