Drug firm execs reject blame for opioid crisis

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With one exception, top executives with drug companies accused of flooding West Virginia with prescription painkillers told a congressional panel Tuesday that their shipping practices did not contribute to the opioid epidemic.

Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., who heads a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee investigating massive shipments of opioid drugs to small-town pharmacies, called on the CEOs of the nation’s largest distributors to say whether they believed their firms paved the way for the deadliest drug crisis in U.S. history.