Case would be 1st example of a province going after opioid makers for costs — expert

British Columbia will sue multiple pharmaceutical companies in an effort to reclaim health-care costs incurred during the ongoing opioid crisis, an expert being consulted on the case said.

Matthew Herder, director of the Health Law institute at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said Wednesday he understands the province is going after "quite a number of actors" involved in selling opioid products in a to-be-filed lawsuit.

"It's an important moment when at least one provincial government is trying to take action with some of the actors who have been, on a systemic level, more responsible for the present crisis," Herder said.

"Myself and others have long been calling for various levels of government to take action and try and hold manufacturers that are at the centre of the opioid epidemic … accountable."

There has been "little to no" legal activity against pharmaceutical companies involved in marketing opioids, Herder said, aside from a national class action lawsuit against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma.

He likened the expected lawsuit to past legal actions against tobacco companies.

B.C. Mental Health Addictions Minister Judy Darcy and Attorney General David Eby were expected to announce the lawsuit later Wednesday.

A lawyer for the province declined to comment for this story.

Thousands of people in B.C. and Canada have died as a result of opioid overdoses.

According to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control, there were 742 unintentional illicit overdose deaths between January and June of this year, largely driven by fentanyl.