Attorneys representing Beaver County, Pa., filed a lawsuit Monday against nearly two dozen drugmakers, drug distributors and physicians for their alleged roles in the county's spike in opioid-related overdoses, according to a report from CBS Pittsburgh.
The lawsuit names 23 defendants who testified before Congress that certain opioid products were not addictive. No local physicians are named in the suit.
"The drug companies and the distributors who we are suing knew that these drugs were addictive, and they kept pumping them into the mainstream of these small towns and counties," Bob Peirce Jr., an attorney with the Pittsburgh-based Robert Pierce and Associates law firm representing the county, told CBS Pittsburgh.
Mr. Pierce said the opioid epidemic, which can be quantified in terms of overtime and emergency medical responses, has likely costed Pennsylavania counties millions of dollars.
Thirteen people die of a drug overdose every day in Pennsylvania, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
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