On Tuesday, retail behemoth Walmart became the most recent significant stakeholder in the pharmaceutical business to disclose a settlement plan for lawsuits brought by state and local governments about the harm caused by potent prescription opioids dispensed at its pharmacies around the U.S.
The $3.1 billion offer comes after identical declarations made on Nov. 2 by the two biggest pharmacy chains in the United States, CVS Health and Walgreen Co., each of which stated they would pay approximately $5 billion.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said in a statement that it “strongly denies” claims that its pharmacies incorrectly filled prescriptions for potent prescription medicines made in lawsuits brought by state and municipal governments. The settlement agreement does not include a responsibility admission from the company.
Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, stated in a statement that the corporation would have to adhere to monitoring procedures, stop fraudulent prescriptions, and identify suspect ones.
If the settlement is approved, the corporation would pay the majority of the amount over the next year, according to attorneys for local governments.
The agreements were reached after discussions with a number of state attorneys general, but they are still subject to change. Before being finalized, the CVS and Walgreens transactions would need to be approved by a majority of state and local governments. 43 states would need to ratify Walmart’s proposal. The official procedure has not yet started.
In settling complicated cases related to their claimed participation in an opioid overdose epidemic that has been connected to more than 500,000 fatalities in the U.S. over the past 20 years, the national pharmacies join some of the largest drugmakers and distributors.
Over $50 billion has been collected in recent years in proposed and finalized settlements, the majority of which will be utilized by governments to address the situation.
The majority of fatal opioid overdoses in the 2000s involved prescription medications like OxyContin and cheap oxycodone. People who were hooked on the drugs increasingly moved to heroin, which proved to be more lethal, after governments, doctors, and businesses took measures to make them harder to obtain.
Opioid-related fatalities have reached historic highs in recent years, hovering around 80,000 each year. The majority of those fatalities contain fentanyl, a potent synthetic narcotic that is widely available in the U.S. illegal drug market and is created illegally in the majority of those cases.
