Walmart, Walgreens, and CVS have been ordered to pay $650m in landmark US
opioid case.
A federal judge awarded damages to two Ohio counties in a lawsuit against the US
pharmacy chains, claiming the way they distributed opioids to customers caused
serious harm to communities
used to abate a continuing opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties, outside
Cleveland. Attorneys for the counties had put the price tag at $1bn for the damage
done to each of the counties.
Lake County is to receive $306m over 15 years. Trumbull County is to receive $344m
over the same period. Polster ordered the companies to pay nearly $87m to cover the
first two years of the abatement plan.
In his ruling, Polster admonished the three companies, saying they “squandered the
opportunity to present a meaningful plan to abate the nuisance”.
Walmart issued a statement saying the counties’ attorneys “sued Walmart in search
of deep pockets, and this judgment follows a trial that was engineered to favor the
plaintiffs’ attorneys and was riddled with remarkable legal and factual mistakes. We
will appeal.”
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A Walgreens spokesperson also said the company would appeal.
“The facts and the law did not support the jury verdict last fall, and they do not
support the court’s decision now,” said spokesperson Fraser Engerman. “The court
committed significant legal errors in allowing the case to go before a jury on a flawed
legal theory that is inconsistent with Ohio law and compounded those errors in
reaching its ruling regarding damages.”
CVS did not immediately respond to the Associated Press for a request for comment.
“The news today means that we will soon have the long-awaited resources necessary
to extend aid to properly address the harms caused by this devastating epidemic,”
Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda said in a statement.
Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck in a statement said: “Today marks the
start of a new day in our fight to end the opioid epidemic.”
A jury returned a verdict in November in favour of the counties after a six-week trial.
It was then left to Polster to decide how much the counties should receive from the
three pharmacy companies. He heard testimony in May to determine how much in
damages the counties should receive.
CVS is based in Rhode Island, Walgreens in Illinois and Walmart in Arkansas.
The counties convinced the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in
creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication into their
communities.
It was the first time pharmacy companies completed a trial to defend themselves in a
drug crisis that has killed a half-million Americans since 1999.
Attorneys for the pharmacy chains maintained they had policies to stem the flow of
pills when their pharmacists had concerns and would notify authorities about
suspicious orders from doctors. They also said it was doctors who controlled how
many pills were prescribed for legitimate medical needs not their pharmacies
The pharmacy chains said after the trial they would appeal the jury’s verdict.
Two chains — Rite Aid and Giant Eagle — settled lawsuits with the counties before
trial. The amounts they paid have not been disclosed publicly.
Mark Lanier, an attorney for the counties, said during trial that the pharmacies were
attempting to blame everyone but themselves.
The opioid crisis has overwhelmed courts, social service agencies and law
enforcement in Ohio’s blue-collar corner east of Cleveland, leaving behind
heartbroken families and babies born to addicted mothers, Lanier told jurors.
Roughly 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone
between 2012 and 2016 — equivalent to 400 for every resident. In Lake County, some
61 million pills were distributed during that period.
The rise in physicians prescribing pain medications such as oxycodone and
hydrocodone came as medical groups began recognising that patients have the right
to be treated for pain, Kaspar Stoffelmayr, an attorney for Walgreens, said at the
opening of the trial.
The problem, he said, was “pharmaceutical manufacturers tricked doctors into
writing way too many pills.
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