US pharmacy chains accept billion-dollar opioid settlement US Supreme Court clears way for Senator Graham to be questioned

Major US pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens have reached an agreement on a costly settlement in the legal dispute over alleged complicity in the country’s painkiller crisis. That would mean paying CVS $5.3 billion and Walgreens $5.0 billion, the companies said Wednesday.

According to US media reports, Walmart is also facing a $3.1 billion settlement. States, municipalities, cities and Native American tribes in the US accuse the companies of exacerbating the devastating abuse of opioids through a lack of control over the painkiller trade. CVS and Walgreens deny this, claiming they only sold pills prescribed by doctors. The draft settlement does not contain any acknowledgment of guilt from the companies.

Opioids are partly synthetically manufactured drugs with, among other things, analgesic properties. However, they harbor dependency risks and great potential for abuse. According to the CDC, the opioid epidemic has killed nearly half a million people in the United States over the past two decades.

Most lawsuits in the US are against manufacturers and wholesalers of painkillers – especially the now-bankrupt Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma. The largest US settlement to date, worth up to $26 billion, involved drug wholesalers McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health and drug maker Johnson & Johnson in 2021.

However, operators of major pharmacy chains like CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Walmart are now under significant legal pressure. In August, the companies were ordered to pay a total of $650 million in a landmark opioid lawsuit in Ohio. The comparisons are controversial. The payments are spread over many years and, according to critics, are disproportionate to the costs of the opioid crisis. (aeg/sda/awp/dpa)