10 hours Ago By Silas Morgan
Pharmacy giant Walgreens has reached a $300 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations it filled millions of invalid opioid and other drug prescriptions during the height of the nation’s opioid epidemic.
The lawsuit filed against Walgreens involved multiple agencies and prosecutors from across the country, including in Florida.“Pharmacies have a legal responsibility to prescribe controlled substances in a safe and professional manner, not dispense dangerous drugs just for profit,” U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a DOJ news release announcing the settlement Monday. “This Department of Justice is committed to ending the opioid crisis and holding bad actors accountable for their failure to protect patients from addiction.”In its lawsuit, the justice department alleged Walgreens filled the invalid prescriptions between August 2012 and March 2023 — even after previously acknowledging that it failed to comply with the Controlled Substances Act and reaching a settlement with the DOJ and the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2013, according to court records.
The lawsuit also said Walgreens filed false claims with multiple federal healthcare programs by seeking reimbursement for the prescriptions, including Medicare and programs for U.S. military members and federal employees, according to court records.
The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Florida, which includes Orlando, took part in the case against Walgreens.
“This landmark civil settlement is the largest Controlled Substances Act resolution in our district’s history and once again confirms the high priority our office has placed upon confronting those responsible for the opioid crisis here,” said U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe in a statement.
As part of the suit, the DOJ took over four whistleblower cases by ex-Walgreens employees, including one from Central Florida. Another of the whistleblower cases had been filed in the Southern District of Florida by Elmer Mosley, who retired from Walgreens in 2018 after 42 years working in the pharmacy industry, court records show.In addition to the $300 million, Walgreens will have to pay an additional $50 million if the company is sold, merged, or transferred prior to fiscal year 2032, the release said.
Walgreens will also have to follow compliance measures for the next 7 years. Those include providing annual training to pharmacy employees regarding their legal obligations relating to controlled substances and verifying that pharmacy staffing is sufficient to enable pharmacy employees to comply with those legal obligations, according to the release.It must also maintain a system that can block prescriptions from prescribers whom Walgreens becomes aware are writing illegitimate controlled substance prescriptions.
The DOJ alleged Walgreens systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill controlled-substance prescriptions quickly, without taking the time needed to confirm each prescription’s validity; and fostered a corporate culture wherein pharmacists who diligently observed their responsibility to verify the legitimacy of controlled-substance prescriptions were subject to reprimand, according to the DOJ’s 300-page complaint.The department also said Walgreens prevented pharmacists from warning other another about those writing invalid opioid prescriptions..
