Drugstore giant Walgreens “systematically” pushed pharmacists to quickly fill prescriptions with obvious red flags, helping drive unneccesary deaths and the opioid crisis, according to a lawsuit announced today from the Department of Justice.
The suit, filed Thursday in Illinois federal court, alleges that between 2012 and the present, Walgreens “knowingly filled millions of prescriptions for controlled substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose,” according to the DOJ.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold Walgreens accountable for the many years that it failed to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.
“These practices allowed millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Walgreens stores.”
The suit alleges Walgreens, which has more than 12,000 locations across the world, ignored its own pharmacists, internal data, and legal obligations around prescribed controlled substances to quickly fill orders.
The civil complaint, which originated from a group of four whistleblowers, also claims Walgreens used specific metrics to pressure staff into quickly filling prescriptions.
In some cases, “patients died after overdosing on opioids shortly after filling unlawful prescriptions at Walgreens,” the Justice Department said.
“We will not stand by and allow the government to put our pharmacists in a no-win situation, trying to comply with ‘rules’ that simply do not exist,” Walgreens said in a statement to CNBC.
“Walgreens stands behind our pharmacists, dedicated healthcare professionals who live in the communities they serve, filling legitimate prescriptions for FDA-approved medications written by DEA-licensed prescribers in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”
The drugstore chain has faced multiple lawsuits alleging it was complicit in driving the opioid crisis.
In October, the city of Baltimore reached an $80 million settlement with Walgreens over the opioid crisis, after Philadelphia reached a $110 million settlement of its own earlier in the year.
In 2022,the state of Ohio won an even larger, $650 million judgement against Walgreens and other drug stores, though a December ruling in Ohio appeals court upended the penalty and will likely render it invalid.
