April 30 (Reuters) - The federal judge overseeing

nationwide litigation over the opioid crisis has denied pharmacy

benefit managers OptumRx and Express Scripts' demand that he

recuse himself from cases against them, saying that he did not

have improper communications with plaintiffs' attorneys.

The PBMs had tried to oust the judge based on statements

made by plaintiffs' attorney Michael Kahn in 2019, when Kahn was

pitching cities and counties on joining the nationwide opioid

litigation against drug-makers, distributors, pharmacy chains

and other defendants. Kahn said at a city council meeting in

Palm Bay, Florida, that the judge, U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron

Polster was a "plaintiff-oriented judge" who spoke with certain

plaintiffs' attorneys "every day" and would "push" defendants to

settle.

Polster said in a Tuesday decision that Kahn had retracted

those statements when questioned under oath, explaining that he

"laid it on thick" in an effort to win new clients. Kahn

testified that he had no knowledge of any communications between

the judge and plaintiffs' attorneys, and he called his 2019

statements "inartful" and "dumb."

Polster wrote that Kahn's 2019 statements "crossed the line

into misrepresentation and falsehood," and he previously

sanctioned Kahn $100,000, which Kahn paid.

The PBMs presented no other evidence that Polster had had

improper communication with lawyers in the opioid litigation,

according to Polster's decision. The judge reaffirmed his past

statements that he did not have undisclosed communications with

plaintiffs' lawyers.

Optum did not immediately respond to a request for comment,

and Express Scripts referred to its previously filed court

papers, which said the judge had not fully addressed the

companies' concerns about Kahn's statements.

The opioid litigation, which includes thousands of lawsuits

brought by local governments across the country, has already

resulted in more than $50 billion in settlements resolving

claims that drug manufacturers concealed the addictive pain

drugs' risks, and that distributors and pharmacies ignored red

flags that pills were being diverted into illegal channels.

Optum and Express Scripts were hit with hundreds of opioid

lawsuits in May 2024, after Polster allowed cities and counties

to add new defendants to their existing lawsuits filed against

drug companies. The PBMs then scoured public records for

information about how cities and counties had hired attorneys

and decided to join the opioid litigation, which is when they

discovered Kahn's statements to local officials in the Florida

cities of Palm Bay, Oviedo, and Fort Pierce, according to the

decision.

Plaintiffs alleged that the PBMs promoted addictive opioid

drugs in their role as middlemen who negotiate with drug

companies, health plans and pharmacies to set prescription drug

prices and decide which drugs will be covered by insurance.

Optum and Express Scripts have said that all the claims

against them are without merit.

The MDL is In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation,

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, No.

1:17-md-02804.

For plaintiffs: Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy; Joe

Rice of Motley Rice; Paul Farrell of Farrell & Fuller; and Peter

Weinberger of Spangenberg Shibley & Liber

For OptumRx: Brian Boone of Alston & Bird

For Express Scripts: Jonathan Cooper of Quinn Emanuel

Urquhart & Sullivan

Read more:

Optum, Express Scripts want opioid special master out after

reply-all email mishap

Purdue Pharma, Sacklers reach $7.4 billion national opioid

settlement