Drug Firms Seek Closed Hearing to Explain Pill Shipments

Prescription drug distributors being sued by the state are seeking a closed hearing to explain why they want to keep information about pill shipments secret.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports a Boone County judge on May 6 granted the newspaper’s request to unseal court records about prescription pain pill shipments to West Virginia.

The distributors were given two weeks to appeal that order to the state Supreme Court or settle the lawsuit in order to keep the pill shipment numbers under wraps.

Instead, the distributors filed a motion Wednesday to revise the judge’s decision, requesting a hearing that would be closed to the news media and the public.

The attorney general’s office and other agencies sued the drug distributors, alleging they helped fuel the prescription drug problem in West Virginia.