By Associated Press, Jaimie Ding
Walgreens agreed to pay up to $350 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which has illegally filled millions of prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances over the past decade.
According to the settlement reached last Friday, drugstore chains across the country will need to pay at least $300 million to the government, and if the company is sold, merged or transferred before 2032, they will need to pay an additional $50 million.
This includes a potential nearly $10 billion acquisition by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, announced by Walgreens in early March.
A government complaint filed in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in January alleges that Walgreens intentionally buried millions of illegal prescriptions of controlled substances between August 2012 and March 2023.
“We strongly oppose government legal theory and do not accept responsibility,” Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engalman said in a statement. “This resolution will allow all opioid-related cases to be closed with federal, state and local governments, providing favorable terms in terms of cash flow while focusing on turnaround strategies.”
Amid visits to the Slumping Store and a shrinking market share, Walgreens announced last October that it would close 1,200 stores nationwide. This is because Rite Aid, which filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2023, also dealt with losses and opioid litigation settlements. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a similar lawsuit against CVS in December.
The complaint says Walgreens pharmacists have filled these prescriptions despite clear red flags that prescriptions are likely to be invalid, and the company has pressured the pharmacists to fill them up quickly. The government argues that Walgreens compliance officials ignore “substantial evidence” that the store is filling up illegal prescriptions and withholding important information from pharmacists regarding opioid prescriptions.
The Walgreens have since been asked to pay many invalid prescriptions through Medicare and other federal health programs, according to the government.
The U.S. Department of Justice attempted to dismiss the complaint in light of Friday’s settlement.
“Drugs are legally responsible for prescribing controlled substances in a safe and professional way, rather than dispensing dangerous drugs just for profit,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “This Department of Justice is committed to ending the opioid crisis and holding bad actors accountable for not protecting patients from addiction.”
Walgreen has concluded agreements with the Drug Enforcement Bureau to maintain policies and procedures that require pharmacists to improve compliance with regulations regarding the dispensing of controlled substances, and to ensure the validity of prescriptions for controlled substances, and maintain a system that blocks prescriptions from prescribers generating non-egiatatiial prescriptions.
Together with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Walgreens has agreed to establish and maintain a compliance program that includes training in the dispensing of controlled substances at pharmacies, board oversight, and regular reporting.
“In the midst of the opioid crisis that has plagued our country, we rely on pharmacies to prevent the illicit distribution of these potentially harmful substances,” said Norbert E. Vint, assistant inspector at the U.S. Personnel Office, in a statement.
The settlement resolves four lawsuits brought by a former Walgreens employee whistleblower. In 2022, CVS and Walgreens agreed to pay more than $10 billion in a multinational settlement in a lawsuit that costs the opioid crisis.
Over the past eight years, drug makers, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to more than $50 billion in government settlements.
___
AP health writer Tom Murphy contributed to this report.
Original issue: April 22, 2025, 2:58pm EDT
