The DOJ accused CVS of unlawfully filling opioid scripts as the drug crisis continues
“Massive quantities”... The Justice Department filed a complaint against CVS, accusing the US’s largest pharmacy chain of dispensing wrongfully prescribed opioids. The DOJ said that CVS knowingly filled thousands of prescriptions from “pill mills,” operations that issue a large number of controlled substance scripts without any legitimate medical reason. The agency also claimed CVS wrongfully sought federal reimbursement for those prescriptions. The pharmacy chain said it strongly disagrees with the complaint and its “false narrative.”
If it’s found liable, CVS could face fines and penalties for every unlawful prescription it filled and each federal reimbursement it received. CVS stock is down 46% this year.
Held accountable… Prosecutors are still probing companies that may’ve been involved in the mass production and distribution of opioids. The crisis started with addictive prescription drugs like oxycodone in the ’90s and has expanded to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. 82K Americans died from opioid-related overdoses in 2022. Last week, McKinsey settled a federal suit for $650M that claimed the consulting firm advised drug-maker Purdue Pharma on how to “turbocharge” sales of OxyContin. The company at the center of it all is still in court:
The Supreme Court this year threw out a $6B settlement by Purdue that could’ve shielded the family that owns the company, the Sacklers, from lawsuits.
Purdue previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to downplaying OxyContin’s addictiveness.
It’s an ongoing crisis… and efforts to contain it are intensifying. In the last decade, Big Pharma has agreed to pay more than $50B in gov’t settlements, money that will mostly be used to fight the epidemic. Legislation led to a clamp down on opioid prescriptions, and Trump has said his proposed tariffs are meant to pressure China, Mexico, and Canada to curb flows of fentanyl into the US.