CO Attorney General joins investigation into opioid manufacturers and distributors

More than 600 people in Colorado died last year because of prescription opioid or heroin overdoses according to the Colorado Department of Health.

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and 41 of her counterparts in other states want to tackle the opioid epidemic by investigating eight manufacturers and distributors of opioids in the U.S.

Investigative subpoenas to opioid manufacturers Endo Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceuticals/Cephalon, Inc., Allergan plc, and their related entities. A supplemental subpoena was served to Purdue Pharma.

Documents were also requested from the nation’s largest opioid distributors, AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.

The Attorneys General want to know what information the manufacturers and distributors had regarding the addictive properties of the drugs, as the Attorneys General believe they had more information than they let on.

“We have to know because so many people are being negatively impacted and lives are being lost, we have to understand what happened at the inception,” Coffman said.

Coffman said the investigation won’t solve the opioid problem, but it could provide the funding for prevention, treatment and recovery programs here in Colorado.