EAST ST. LOUIS - St. Clair County voluntarily dismissed a claim that pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts, Optum Rx and United Health Care addicted its population to opioids and should bear the extra costs incurred by the local government.
Special county counsel David Cates of Swansea filed a dismissal notice on May 9, a day ahead of a deadline to respond to a motion to dismiss.
U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn closed the case.
Cates filed the suit in December in St. Clair County Circuit Court, claiming the defendants caused deaths, injuries, fear and discomfort.
He claimed they acted as a monopoly managing benefits for 95% of the population.
He added that they defendants made $498 billion in 2022.
The defendants allegedly choose which drugs appear on formularies for reimbursement.
“No drug will leave a pharmacy if it is not paid for,” he wrote.
“Thus, pharmacy benefit managers control which drugs are dispensed and which drugs enter communities,” he added.
Cates claimed the defendants made it difficult to get pain medication that is less addictive because opioids are cheaper and manufacturers have provided incentives.
He claimed they failed to control diversion of prescriptions and they should monitor, report and stop suspicious orders.
Cates sought to recover costs of medical care, counseling, rehabilitation, and parenting programs.
He sought to recover costs of law enforcement, paramedics, and drug task forces, including overtime pay.
He sought to recover costs of drug court, juvenile delinquency, and jail space.
And he sought to employ medical examiners to determine causes of overdoses.
Cates generally sought costs of abatement and specifically sought worker compensation and health insurance for county employees.
Optum Rx counsel Christopher Lang of St. Louis County removed the complaint to district court in January.
He asserted federal jurisdiction as a federal officer under contract to the defense department.
He claimed Optum Rx does not design or control the formulary for veterans.
Defense counsel Jonathan Cooper of Washington moved to dismiss in March, claiming benefit managers don’t make, distribute, or prescribe opioids.
“Defendants here are too far removed from any direct harm to the county to support liability for injuries caused by third parties’ alleged misuse of opioids,” he wrote.
“Processing claims for coverage of a legally prescribed medication, as pharmacy benefit managers do, does not directly injure anyone,” he added.
Cooper claimed that if local governments could sue to recover every expenditure, courts would effectively replace legislatures in funding local governments.
He claimed the county sought to compensate local governments instead of individuals.
He added that the county collapsed a boundary between public nuisance and product liability.
Cooper cited precedents and Medicare law, then closed the brief.
Cates moved for an extension of time to oppose the motion on April 9.
McGlynn set a May 10 deadline which, for purposes of the county’s case, never arrived.