JACKSON, Miss. ( WJTV ) – Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R-Miss.) filed a lawsuit in the Hinds County Chancery Court against drug manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic.

“In Mississippi, we have seen this epidemic tear apart our families and communities. The opioid epidemic has killed so many of our loved ones,” said Fitch. “I will continue to hold these companies accountable for the role that they have played in destroying so many lives through their unfair, deceptive practices so that our state can heal from this crisis and guard against it ever happening again.”

According to the court documents, PBMs had “a central role in facilitating the oversupply of opioids through conduct that has the intended purpose of ignoring the necessary safeguards for purposes of increasing the prescribing, dispensing and sales of prescription opioids.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported opioid overdoses killed nearly 645,000 Americans from 1999 through 2021. In 2022, Mississippi had the fourth-highest opioid prescribing rate in the nation with 64 opioids being dispersed for every 100 Mississippians.

The lawsuit names the following defendants:

• Optum, Inc.
• OptumRx, Inc.
• OptumInsight Life Sciences, Inc.
• OptumInsight, Inc.
• UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
• The Lewin Group, Inc.
• Evernorth Health, Inc.
• Express Scripts, Inc.
• Express Scripts Administrators, LLC
• ESI Mail Pharmacy Service, Inc.
• Express Scripts Pharmacy, Inc.
• Express Scripts Specialty Distribution Services, Inc.
• Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

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