The Charleston Gazette-Mail has asked a judge to unseal court documents that include details about a drug wholesaler's prescription painkiller shipments to alleged "pill mill" pharmacies in West Virginia.
The court records have been shielded from the public for 14 months.
On Friday, the Gazette-Mail, which has reported extensively on West Virginia's prescription opioid problem over the past two years, filed a motion that asks Boone Circuit Judge William Thompson to unseal a revised complaint in a lawsuit filed by the state against Cardinal Health.
In December 2013, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office and Cardinal Health agreed to a "protective order" that allows the nation's second-largest drug wholesaler to keep "confidential" records filed in the case under wraps.
Last year, lawyers representing Morrisey's office filed an updated complaint against Cardinal Health under seal. The sealed complaint spotlights "suspicious" pain-pill orders shipped to specific pharmacies and towns across the state, according to subsequent filings in the case.
In its motion to intervene, the Gazette-Mail contends the public has a right to see the specific allegations in the state's lawsuit because it was filed on behalf of West Virginians by the attorney general.
Cardinal Health shipped more prescription opioids to West Virginia between 2007 and 2012 than any other drug wholesaler, according to a separate filing in the state's lawsuit.
"The underlying lawsuit addresses serious issues involving a prescription drug epidemic that is ravaging thousands of families in this state and placing an enormous burden on our judicial, health care and government resources," wrote Gazette-Mail lawyer Pat McGinley.
"[Cardinal Health] has marketed millions of doses of the very drugs that have contributed substantially to the crisis. West Virginia citizens should not be barred from access to the information in the [complaint] that identifies the volume and the specific regions or towns where Cardinal Health distributed controlled substances in West Virginia."
The state Department of Health and Human Resources, along with Morrisey's office and the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, are suing Cardinal Health, alleging the company helped fuel the prescription drug problem in West Virginia by shipping an excessive number of painkillers to "pill mill" pharmacies across the state
The case - initially brought by former Attorney General Darrell McGraw and inherited by Morrisey - has dragged on for more than four years.
In April, the Gazette-Mail filed a motion to unseal court documents in a separate state lawsuit against 11 other drug wholesalers.
Thompson unsealed the records, but excluded pill shipment information from drug companies that had agreed to settle with the state.
In that lawsuit, lawyers representing Morrisey's office also asked the judge to unseal the court documents that included details about specific drug shipments.
They haven't done so in the Cardinal Health case.
Morrisey spokeswoman Erin Timony said the two lawsuits have progressed at different rates, with the Cardinal Health lawsuit trailing behind.
"The Office of Attorney General looks forward to holding Cardinal fully responsible for the harm it has inflicted on the people of West Virginia as soon as it has the opportunity to do so," Timony said.
A Cardinal Health spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.
During the past year, Morrisey's office has settled lawsuits with six smaller prescription drug wholesalers that have agreed to pay the state a combined $6.7 million.
Reach Eric Eyre at
ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com,
304-348-4869 or follow
@ericeyre on Twitter.