America's three largest pharmacy chains have been ordered to pay £539.8m for helping fuel a painkiller crisis in two Ohio counties, after a US judge found that the three, Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS and Walmart, helped create an oversupply of addictive opioid pills.
Between 2012 and 2016, more than 80m painkillers were reportedly distributed in Trumbull County – about 400 pills per resident, while in Lake County, the figure stood at 61m pills over the same time frame.
The companies plan to appeal.
The money will be used to help combat the impact of the crisis in the two counties, reports BBC News.
Millions of Americans have become addicted to opiate-based painkillers like fentanyl and OxyContin over the past 20 years, with nearly half a million deaths being attributed to painkiller overdoses between 1999 and 2019.
In court, attorneys for Lake and Trumbull counties put the total financial cost of the crisis at $3.3bn.
Both counties, like other other US jurisdictions, have argued that the crisis has put an enormous strain on local resources, social programmes and legal systems.
A failure to ensure that prescriptions were valid, their attorneys have argued, created a public nuisance as vast quantities of pills flooded their communities.
A judge ruled that Lake County will receive $306m over 15 years, while Trumbull County will receive $344m.
In the short-term, the three companies have been ordered to pay about $87m to cover the first two years of the plan.
The three companies have repeatedly denied the allegations and claimed they attempted to prevent painkillers from being diverted towards illicit use.
Additionally, they argued it was doctors, rather than pharmacies, that ultimately determined how many pills were prescribed and to whom.
“We never manufactured or marketed opioids nor did we distribute them to the ‘pill mills’ and internet pharmacies that fuelled this crisis,” Walgreens said in a statement.
More than 3 000 lawsuits have been filed against opioid manufacturers and pharmacies in the hopes of recouping the costs spent combating the crisis.
BBC News article – US pharmacy chains ordered to pay $650m in Ohio opioids suit (Open access)
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