Who'd Thunk It?

Drug company cuts off supply to Mingo Co. pharmacy

Kyla AsburyFeb. 5, 2016, 12:14pm

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CHARLESTON – After West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office filed a lawsuit against it, McKesson Corp. has terminated its contract with Tug Valley Pharmacy in Mingo County without any advanced notice.

McKesson is the nation’s largest drug distributor and it informed the pharmacy on Jan. 8 that it was terminating its contract. That was the same day Morrisey's announced it was suing McKesson for its alleged failure to detect, report and help stop all of the controlled substances coming into the state.

The pharmacy claimed that McKesson cut off shipments without advanced warning, which violated its business agreement.

On Jan. 20, Tug Valley filed an emergency petition in Kanawha Circuit Court asking the court to immediately force the drug distributor to provide it with the controlled substances, however, McKesson wrote in response to the petition that continuing business with the pharmacy would be a risk for the company.

Russell Jessee, an attorney at Steptoe & Johnson, wrote in his response to the petition, that McKesson risks having the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency or the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy take regulatory actions if it resumes shipments to Tug Valley.

Tug Valley has been named in at least eight lawsuits for allegedly negligently filling prescriptions and causing customers to become addicted to controlled substances, according to McKesson’s response to the emergency petition.

McKesson wrote that it began its investigation into Tug Valley after it learned of the lawsuits against the pharmacy through a CBS News report and that after it realized the large number of prescriptions for controlled substances it was filling, it chose to stop filling prescriptions with the pharmacy.

In his lawsuit against McKesson, Morrisey claimed that the drug distributor sent nearly 100 million doses of painkillers to the state between 2007 and 2012.

Jessee could not be reached for comment.