The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is “at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.” (Photo by Getty Images)

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued a pharmacy benefits manager he says played a “role in worsening the deadly opioid crisis in Kentucky.”?

The complaint, filed in Jessamine County Circuit Court Wednesday, names Express Scripts and affiliates as defendants and targets alleged practices over the last two decades.

“The opioid crisis was fueled and sustained by those involved in the supply chain of opioids, with manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and Pharmacy Benefit Managers …including Express Scripts, each playing a role,” Coleman wrote in the suit.?

The 83-page court document says Express Scripts is “at the center of the opioid dispensing chain.” It also accuses the company of “colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers in the deceptive marketing of opioids in order to alter perceptions of opioids and increase their sales,” among other things.?

It also accuses the company of:

• Colluding with Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers to restrict or eliminate utilization management tools on national formularies that would have limited opioid prescribing and/or dispensing.?
• Deciding not to act on the vast amount of data and other information they had about the epidemic in order to limit the overflow of opioids into communities throughout the United States, including in Kentucky.?
• Dispensing prescription opioids through their mail order pharmacies without effective controls against diversion, in violation of Kentucky law and federal law.?

A spokesperson for Express Scripts’ parent company, Evernorth, has not yet responded to a Lantern request for comment.?

The lawsuit says its purpose is to “abate public nuisance caused in substantial part by these Defendants’ unreasonable acts and omissions fueling the opioid epidemic.”?

“Express Scripts’ central role in the opioid crisis was facilitated by their unique combination of knowledge and power that provided them with the extraordinary ability to control the opioid supply throughout the United States.”

He is seeking a jury trial, among other relief.?

“The opioid-fueled drug crisis is the greatest tragedy of our lifetime. It has stolen loved ones, drained scarce public resources and inflicted generational harm on Kentucky communities large and small,” Coleman said in a statement. “Express Scripts and the other pharmacy benefit managers amassed an unprecedented level of power, using it to push opioid pills and conceal unlawful activity. They must be held to account for profiting off Kentucky families’ pain.”?

Read Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Express Scripts