CVS, Walgreens and Walmart must pay two opioid-ravaged Ohio counties $650.5 million for the companies' part in fueling the opioid epidemic there, The New York Times reported Aug. 17.
A related November jury verdict found the companies ignored signs of opioid abuse while dispensing large quantities of the drugs, the report said. The new ruling is the first by a federal judge against the pharmacy chains that sets a dollar amount for their roles in the crisis.
Ohio's Lake and Trumbull counties need nearly $2 billion to address damage from the opioid epidemic, the report said. The pharmacies' ordered payment amounts to one-third of the total.
"We never manufactured or marketed opioids, nor did we distribute them to the 'pill mills' and internet pharmacies that fueled this crisis," Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman told The New York Times.
"Pharmacists fill legal prescriptions written by [Drug Enforcement Agency]-licensed doctors who prescribe legal, FDA-approved substances to treat actual patients in need," CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis said, according to the report.
"Instead of addressing the real causes of the opioid crisis, like pill mill doctors, illegal drugs and regulators asleep at the switch, plaintiffs’ lawyers wrongly claimed that pharmacists must second-guess doctors in a way the law never intended and many federal and state health regulators say interferes with the doctor-patient relationship," Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove told The New York Times.
The companies were ordered to comply with a strict series of monitoring and reporting rules to ensure they improve how they dispense opioids and identify problems, the report said. They must pay their shares of the $650.5 million in installments over 15 years.