Drug firm seeks to keep lid on pain pill allegations

Drug giant Cardinal Health says a recent agreement with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office blocks a judge from unsealing court documents that include details about the company’s prescription painkiller shipments to alleged “pill mill” pharmacies, according to a brief filed this week.

Last month, the Gazette-Mail asked Boone Circuit Judge William Thompson to unseal court records in a lawsuit filed by the state against Cardinal Health, the nation’s second-largest drug wholesaler.

Four days later, lawyers for Morrisey’s office and the drug distributor submitted an “agreed order” to the court. That order — signed by the judge on Oct. 17 — puts an indefinite halt to all proceedings in the case, including the newspaper’s earlier request to unseal allegations in the lawsuit, Cardinal Health argued in a brief filed earlier this week.

Morrisey’s office has a different take on the judge’s order.

- See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-cops-and-courts/20161101/drug-firm-seeks-to-keep-lid-on-pain-pill-allegations-