- Federal court orders America’s three biggest drugstore chains to pay $650.5m (£539.8m) for fueling a painkiller problem in two Ohio counties.
- Federal court concluded Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS, and Walmart oversupplied opioid
- We never produced or sold opioids or distributed them to ‘pill mills’ and online pharmacies,” Walgreens claimed. “
Federal court orders America’s three biggest drugstore chains to pay $650.5m (£539.8m) for fueling a painkiller.
In 1999-2019, opioid overdoses caused over 500,000 fatalities. Lake and Trumbull county lawyers near Cleveland estimated the crisis cost $3.3 billion in court. Both counties contend that the crisis has strained local resources, social programmes, and judicial systems. Failure to verify prescriptions, their lawyers say, swamped areas with medicines. Trumbull County issued roughly 400 medicines per citizen between 2012 and 2016.
61 million tablets were sold in Lake County. Over 15 years, Lake County will get $306 million, and Trumbull County will get $344 million. For the first two years of the plan, the three companies must pay $87 million. Both countries were happy with the decision. Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck said that the verdict “marks a new day in our fight against the opioid epidemic.”
The three firms have refuted the charges and said they tried to prevent medication diversion. Doctors, not pharmacists, decided how many drugs were given and to whom, they said. All three corporations told they’ll appeal. “We never produced or sold opioids or distributed them to ‘pill mills’ and online pharmacies,” Walgreens claimed. “The plaintiffs’ effort to tackle the opioid issue by expanding public nuisance legislation is shortsighted and unsustainable,” the statement said. More than 3,000 lawsuits have been brought against opioid producers and pharmacies.
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