Drug Distributors Challenge New York Law Over Opioid Fines

The Healthcare Distribution Alliance has sued the state of New York over a new law that imposes a $600 million surcharge on opioid manufacturers and distributors.

In the lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York just days after the law went into effect, the trade group claimed New York’s Opioid Stewardship Act unconstitutionally singles out drugmakers and distributors for a crisis attributable to many more actors.

The surcharge on pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesale distributors will “punish those companies for the opioid epidemic, the roots of which are extraordinarily complex and stretch back decades," the complaint states.