Other LanguagesOLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that he formally rejected a proposed settlement with opioid distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health and Amerisource Bergen, and Johnson & Johnson. The Attorney General’s Office has been litigating against these companies for years. Trial against McKesson, Cardinal Health and Amerisource Bergen begins in King County Superior Court on September 7. Ferguson’s trial against Johnson & Johnson is scheduled to begin in King County Superior Court in January 2022.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson led eight other attorneys general in filing a formal objection today [LINK] asking the judge to reject Purdue Pharma’s proposed bankruptcy plan, which includes a lifetime legal shield for the company’s owners, the Sackler family. The states argue that a bankruptcy court doesn’t have the authority to prevent attorneys general from enforcing state law, including the decision to pursue the Sacklers for their illegal conduct.
In the wake of today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Attorney General Bob Ferguson offered the following statement, and a fact sheet detailing the ACA’s impact on Washington state. Washington state was part of the coalition defending the ACA, because the Trump Administration refused.
SEATTLE — As a result of an investigation launched by Attorney General Bob Ferguson, McKinsey, a multinational consulting firm that worked with Purdue Pharma, will pay $13,465,833 to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. Ferguson is directing the entire amount to be invested in treatment, prevention and other efforts to address the opioid epidemic in Washington.
SEATTLE — A King County Superior Court judge today found AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp., one of the largest prescription opioid distributors in the world, in contempt of court for failing to turn over important documents and attempting to shield key witnesses from testifying. AmerisourceBergen is one of the three companies Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued in March 2019 for unlawfully contributing to Washington state’s opioid epidemic.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued the following statement today after a federal judge in northern California ruled that the Trump Administration’s reinterpretation of a long-standing provision of the Medicaid Act that allows voluntary payroll deductions — such as union dues and health care premiums — from payments to in-home caregivers is invalid.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that Bard, a medical device manufacturer and formerly one of the biggest manufacturers of transvaginal mesh devices, will pay $2.38 million to Washington for misrepresentations and failure to include serious risks in the instructions and marketing materials for surgical mesh devices.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today partnered with a coalition of state attorneys general urging the Trump Administration to immediately withdraw its new reporting structure that prohibits hospitals from reporting COVID-19 data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The directive creates a system controlled solely by the U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a consumer protection lawsuit today against a Redmond business and its owner for advertising a so-called COVID-19 “vaccine.” The lawsuit comes just over a month after Ferguson sent a cease and desist letter to the company, North Coast Biologics, and its owner, Johnny T. Stine.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that Seattle Pain Center, a shuttered network of eight pain clinics formerly owned by Dr. Frank Li, will pay $1.1 million to Washington’s Medicaid program.