March 1 (Reuters) - Drug distributors Cardinal Health Inc , McKesson Corp and JM Smith Corp on Wednesday prevailed at trial in Georgia in a case brought by families of opioid addicts accusing the companies of acting as drug dealers.
A jury in Glynn County Superior Court handed down the verdict after two days of deliberations, according to Courtroom View Network, which carried live video of the trial. It was the first trial of opioid claims brought by individual plaintiffs, rather than government entities.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 21 plaintiffs include children whose parents died of overdoses, a woman whose grandson was born with opioid addiction symptoms and died at one month old, and a woman who was raped as a teenager but received no help from her opioid-addicted mother. (Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Himani Sarkar)
