West Virginia settling drug suit against 2 more distributors

Two major prescription drug distributors have agreed to settle a West Virginia lawsuit alleging they fueled West Virginia's opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers into the state over several years.

Boone County Circuit Court Judge William Thompson disclosed the "settlement in principle" in an order Tuesday cancelling further proceedings.

He directed Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and the state attorney general's office to provide details by the week of Jan. 9.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the settlements, with terms undisclosed, end the state suit against the companies.

The newspaper's investigation found drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in six years, a period when 1,728 people statewide fatally overdosed on them.

The state has settled similar claims against other wholesalers.