Walgreens, the second largest pharmacy chain in the United States, has agreed to pay up to $350m in a settlement with the Department of Justice, which has accused it of illegally filling millions of prescriptions in the past decade for opioids and other controlled substances.
CNN reports that the nationwide drugstore chain must pay the government at least $300m and will owe another $50m if the company is sold, merged or transferred before 2032, according to the settlement reached last Friday.
The government’s complaint, filed in January in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Walgreens knowingly filled millions of illegal prescriptions for controlled substances between August 2012 and March 2023. These include prescriptions for excessive opioids and prescriptions filled significantly early.
However, the company maintains that it “strongly disagrees” with the “legal theory and admit no liability”, according to Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman.
“This resolution allows us to close all opioid related litigation with federal, state, and local governments and provides us with favourable terms from a cash flow perspective while we focus on our turnaround strategy,” he added.
Amid slumping store visits and shrinking market share, Walgreens announced it was closing 1 200 stores last October.
Another leading drug store chain Rite Aid filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2023 as it was also dealing with losses and opioid lawsuit settlements, while the Department of Justice filed a similar lawsuit against CVS – the biggest in the country – in December.
The complaint says Walgreens pharmacists filled the prescriptions despite obvious signs that these were highly likely to be invalid, and the company pressured its pharmacists to fill them quickly.
The government alleges Walgreen’s compliance officials ignored “substantial evidence” that staff were filling unlawful prescriptions, and withheld important information on opioid prescribers from its pharmacists.
Walgreens then allegedly sought payment for many of the invalid prescriptions through Medicare and other federal healthcare programmes in violation of the False Claims Act.
The US Justice Department has moved to dismiss its complaint in light of Friday’s settlement.
“Pharmacies have a legal responsibility to prescribe controlled substances in a safe and professional manner, not dispense dangerous drugs just for profit,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. “This Department is committed to ending the opioid crisis and holding bad actors accountable for their failure to protect patients from addiction.”
Walgreen has also entered into an agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration to improve its compliance with rules around dispensing controlled substances, maintain policies and procedures requiring pharmacists to confirm the validity of controlled substance prescriptions, and maintain a system for blocking scripts from prescribers who are producing illegitimate prescriptions.
It has agreed to establish and maintain a compliance programme that includes training, board oversight, and periodic reporting to the agency regarding the dispensing of controlled substances.
The settlement resolves four cases brought by former Walgreens employee whistleblowers. In 2022, CVS and Walgreens agreed to pay more than $10bn in a multi-state settlement of lawsuits brought against them over the toll of the opioid crisis.
Over the past eight years, drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to more than $50bn in settlements with governments – with most of the money required to be used to fight the opioid crisis.
CNN article – Walgreens to pay up to $350 million in US opioid settlement (Open access)
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