The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday vacated a 2022 district court judgment in City of Huntington, West Virginia v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation et al , holding that West Virginia common law permits public nuisance claims based on “the conditions resulting from the over-distribution of opioids.”

The case will now return to the district court for reconsideration under corrected legal standards, with the distributors potentially exposed to the plaintiffs’ proposed $2.5 billion abatement plan. The original 2022 district court ruling had dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims against drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corporation, on the basis that they acted in “good faith.” The defendants control over 90 percent of the US opioid

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