Warminster Sues Opioid Manufacturers

WARMINSTER, PA — Warminster Township has joined a growing number of municipalities filing lawsuits against the companies that produce and sell what they call "devastating" prescription opioids.

Filed on Wednesday, Warminster's suit targets manufacturers, distributors, board members and executives that township officials are blaming for the nation's opioid epidemic. They joined hundreds of other government entities who have filed similar lawsuits claiming deceptive marketing and reckless distribution of the drugs.

The suit was filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County.

"Warminster Township has been battling the opioid epidemic that has been plaguing this community and the people of Pennsylvania," said Township Supervisor Dan McPhillips in a news release. "Warminster Township intends to hold the defendants responsible for what they have done to our community."

The township's complaint alleges that pharmaceutical manufacturers misled the medical community and the public about both the benefits and risks of prescription opioids.

Distributors failed to monitor and control the drugs' distribution network and board members and executives of drug companies personally sanctioned those efforts, it claims.

The press release claims that Warminster has been "hard hit" by an opioid epidemic and that police, fire and other departments have had to divert "substantial resources" to deal with it.

"Through its lawsuit, Warminster Township seeks to recoup from the opioid manufacturers, distributors, and key individual executives and board members, the massive amount of money the local government has already spent on combating the effects of opioid addiction, and to substantially fund the costs Warminster Township will incur into the foreseeable future to abate the harm that Warminster Township alleges was created by defendants," the release says.

Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP, along with local counsel Boni, Zack & Snyder LLC, represents Warminster Township in the litigation.

Judy Scolnick, of Scott + Scott, said the lawsuit targets "the defendants' greed-driven scheme to maximize sales of opioid pills ... with little or no regard to their safety or efficacy."

Locally, the Bucks County government filed a similar lawsuit last year, after 232 drug overdose fatalities were reported in the county in 2017.

Defendants in that case include Purdue Pharma, creator of OxyContin, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Endo Pharmaceuticals and others, as well as three corporate distributors.