West Virginia reaches opioid settlements with Walmart and CVS totaling more than $147 million

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

CNN — The state of West Virginia has reached settlements with Walmart and CVS totaling more than $147 million to resolve opioid lawsuits, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Tuesday in a news conference.

CVS agreed to a settlement of more than $82.5 million and Walmart agreed to pay more than $65 million to settle the civil complaints “that alleged the pharmacies failed to maintain effective controls as a distributor against diversion that contributed to the oversupply of opioids in the state,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release.

CVS said that while it is no longer a defendant in the West Virginia lawsuit, it will continue to defend against other opioid claims.

“Putting these claims (in West Virginia) behind us is in the best interest of all parties,” CVS said. “Our position remains that opioid prescriptions are written by doctors, not pharmacists, and that opioid medications are made and marketed by manufacturers, not pharmacies.”

-snip-

By Amy Simonson and Steve Almasy, CNN
Published 7:43 PM EDT, Tue September 20, 2022


Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/20/us/west-virginia-cvs-walmart-opioid-settlements/index.html

[cstanleytech]

1. Probably easier for them to settle than have it go to court wasting money fighting it because you

know that they probably made more money by far than they settled for plus you can bet that they will try to use the settlement as a tax deduction.

[jimfields33]

4. Still BS that they were blamed

Where are the doctors in all this? Giving out drugs like candy may not have been the smartest thing and was criminal. They should be accountable. Check the prescription sheets to see who gave out more drugs then warranted and arrest them.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

9. Lots of blame to go around! Starting with the manufacturers as I recall.

To my mind his type of profiteering off misery is always par for the corporate course…until someone goes to jail…no jail again? Huh.

[cstanleytech]

15. Oh, I largely agree that it was BS.

Mind you I am willing to wager that there were at least a few pharmacist that either knew or suspected something and did nothing.
But I am not sure if it is fair to hold the company itself actually responsible for it unless it can be proven that they actually knew about it and did nothing.

[PurgedVoter]

2. That's about equal to the change in drawers at any given moment.

Walmart and CVS shelling out $147 million is 21 Superbowl ads. That's the cost of maybe 3 new Walmarts. People died and putting it behind us is in the best interest of people who would and will kill again given the opportunity to make scads of money.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is a Republican, so you know that he is going to have a really good year financially and when he runs for future office, there will be really big money behind him.

[Ford_Prefect]

3. This is pocket change to Walmart and CVS. They'll make it back in a few hours.

They spent that kind of budget on the last 2 elections and lobbying in between.

CVS gross profit as of June 2022 reported to be $121.672 Billion, or roughly $4.6 billion a week or about $657 million per day.
Walmart reports fiscal year 2022 revenue of $573 billion worldwide. That's roughly $22 billion per week or a little over $3 billion per day.

I am reasonably sure they did considerably more immediate and lasting damage to the people and the state of West Virginia.

[jimfields33]

5. They did no such thing

They filled out prescription requests from doctors. Why should they be penalized?

[Ford_Prefect]

7. The evidence said otherwise. They knew that too many scrips were being written

and had an obligation to notify authorities. They kept quiet and took the money instead.

[jimfields33]

8. I guess that is culpable behavior. Thanks.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

10. Exactly. Their computers would have told them this amount of drugs sales is not normal.

They didn’t care.

[Ford_Prefect]

11. There was suggestion made that the suppliers of the drugs influenced their judgement in some way.

I don't recall if it was straight up bribery at some level of management in Walmart and CVS, or another kind of persuasion regarding a sort of don't ask, don't tell approach. There are clear standards for situations like this and neither company followed them regardless of who made the decisions.

[mountain grammy]

6. I hope the money is used appropriately

For rehab and education.

[heckles65]

12. It sure took West Virginia long enough

I took a public defender job in West Virginia in 2002 When I got there, I had never even heard of Oxycontin. Two months later it was all I was hearing.

[Aristus]

13. $147 million. That will buy a lot of meth.

Party on, West Virginia…

[Quanto Magnus]

14. and they'll find a way

to write this off on their taxes I'm sure...

This kind of thing won't stop until executives are held directly/personally responsible.

They're getting paid the big bucks, they should also face the consequences. It's their leadership that landed the companies in hot water.