Walgreens agrees to pay US up to $350m for illegally filling opioid prescriptions
Walgreens has agreed to pay up to $350m to settle claims by the US justice department that it illegally filled millions of prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances.
The country's largest drugstore chain must pay the government $300m, plus an additional $50m if the corporation is sold, transferred or merged before 2032, according to the terms of the settlement reached on Friday.
The justice department first filed a complaint against Walgreens Boots Alliance, collectively known as Walgreens, in January. They alleged that the corporation dispensed millions of unlawful prescriptions and later sought reimbursement for said substances through Medicare and other federal healthcare programs, a violation of the False Claims Act.
The complaint also accused Walgreens of 'systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions, including controlled substance prescriptions, without taking the time needed to confirm their validity'. This practice allegedly continued for more than a decade, between August 2012 and March 2023.
'These practices allowed millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Walgreens stores,' the statement added.
The prescriptions included substances such as opioids and 'trinity', referring to the often abused combination of opioids, benzodiazepine and muscle relaxants.
'This lawsuit seeks to hold Walgreens accountable for the many years that it failed to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs,' said former principal deputy assistant attorney general Brian M Boynton, head of the justice department's civil division, in a statement.
Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman said in a statement to the Guardian that the company 'strongly [disagrees] with the government's legal theory and admit no liability'.
Sign up to Headlines US
Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning
after newsletter promotion
'This resolution allows us to close all opioid related litigation with federal, state, and local governments and provides us with favorable terms from a cashflow perspective while we focus on our turnaround strategy,' Engerman said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Pembrokeshire Herald
a day ago
- Pembrokeshire Herald
Cabinet approves transport strategy wish list
PEMBROKESHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL'S Cabinet has endorsed a Regional Transport Strategy that relies on Welsh Government funding of £125m over the next five years. However, the plan also relies on the Council spending other money allocated to it by the Welsh Government to pay for the delivery of Welsh Government as well as local priorities. Based on comparisons between similar projects, the low end of the cost of delivering the Pembrokeshire-only projects will be at least £66m. That suggests that not only will all the projects not come to fruition in the plan period but also indicates that the Welsh Government funding allocation to them underestimates the cost of delivering the majority, if not all, of the projects. If the strategy's budget is fantasy, the prospects of delivering all of it are even more fanciful. The projects in the strategy read like a Guardian reader's wishlist instead of something grounded in local needs. ACTIVE TRAVEL SCHEMES DOMINATE The thirty-plus projects located solely in Pembrokeshire include fifteen schemes solely dedicated to active travel or which incorporate active travel as part of them. In context, and based on the cost of delivering similar schemes, the low-end estimate for 'active travel' schemes alone is around £22m. 'Active Travel' under the Welsh Government's Active Travel Act refers to efforts to reduce the use of cars for everyday journeys, such as commuting and education. Active travel schemes create infrastructure which supports walking, cycling, and wheeling (e.g., wheelchairs, mobility scooters). Those schemes work well in urban areas. However, in rural areas with dispersed working populations, such as Pembrokeshire, their impact is less beneficial. The now-former Welsh Government minister Lee Waters got an earful from Plaid Cymru and fringe environmental groups (mostly funded by the Welsh Government) when he dared say that cars would continue to be the primary mode of transportation in rural Wales. If an MS from Dolgellau can use an e-scooter to get the mile and a half from their taxpayer-funded flat in Cardiff to the Senedd, there's evidently no reason why commuters between Fishguard and Haverfordwest can't do the same. The active travel schemes planned for Pembrokeshire include a Multi-User Route from Narberth to Haverfordwest, an active travel route from Pembroke Dock to Pennar, one from Pembroke to Angle, six schemes in and around Tenby, and an expansion of the County Council's e-bike scheme. BIG TICKET SPENDING The big spending item is the relocation of the A487 at Newgale. That project has been on the cards for fourteen years, if not longer. It forms part of the Welsh Government's regional transport strategy as a permanent solution to the challenge of coastal erosion and the increased risks of tidal and pluvial flooding, standing against less certain and temporary interventions to hold the existing line. As it is part of the Regional Strategy, it will be predominantly funded by the Welsh Government through project-specific grants, in the same way as the preliminary investigations and public engagement. The plan will funnel transport funding towards supporting the Celtic Sea Freeport. Its backers hope the Freeport's economic impact will be positive and spread across the Freeport area. However, the existing transport infrastructure for it is a bad joke. Addressing its shortcomings is a major component of the Regional Transport Strategy. Setting aside projects scheduled for Neath Port Talbot, millions of pounds are projected to be spent on hydrogen fuel infrastructure and green/blue energy grid improvements. However, one project guaranteed to cause controversy seeks to increase road capacity and flow through Pembroke to support increased traffic from the Celtic Freeport development in the Angle Peninsula. Bearing in mind obvious geographical and logistical constraints and its need to cross conservation areas and sensitive landscapes within the National Park, any road expansion (there's also an active travel route planned) will likely cause uproar and cost tens of millions to deliver. That is, however, a long-term project. MORE TRANSPORT HUBS In the medium term, the Regional Strategy looks at a multi-million-pound project to improve roads between Haverfordwest and Milford Haven. That scheme looks to address congestion between the county town and the centre of Freeport operations in Pembrokeshire. Again, geographical and logistical issues suggest that the project will find it difficult to do much more than put lipstick on a pig. If, however, the scheme manages to resolve the congestion hotspots at Cartlett, Salutation Square (subject to a separate congestion-easing plan), Freemen's Way, and Johnston as far as the Sunnycroft Roundabout, it will doubtless be welcomed by commuters. And, if you thought one transport hub was a bad idea, there's more to come – from the Milford Haven transport interchange to one planned for Pembroke Dock, improved access to Fishguard's ferry port, and a host of other projects that will connect Pembrokeshire's public transport network, as the plan puts it poetically 'ensuring better multimodal connectivity'. Given the almost certain budget problems which these projects will encounter and, therefore, cause the County Council when it comes to setting its budgets, ensuring Pembrokeshire gets what it needs to improve the local economy instead of what the Welsh Government thinks it ought to have will be a major source of tension and contention. If half of the plan is delivered on time, on budget, and within the Welsh Government's funding envelope, its effects will be limited – as we will all have pigs to fly around on.
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- The Herald Scotland
Supreme Court lets DOGE access Social Security data for now
The court's three liberal justices - Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson - disagreed with that decision. "The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now --before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful," Jackson wrote in a dissent joined by Sotomayor. In March, U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of Maryland said DOGE was intruding on "the personal affairs of millions of Americans" in a fishing expedition that's based on little more than suspicion." Hollander limited DOGE's access to the information while the courts assess the legality of the Trump administration's actions. The administration argued the judge overstepped, viewing DOGE staffers as the equivalent of intruders breaking into hotel rooms rather than as employees trying to modernize the agency's technology and root out waste - as DOGE officials said they intended to do. "District courts should not be able to wield the Privacy Act to substitute their own view of the government's 'needs' for that of the President and agency heads," Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court in an emergency appeal. DOGE has sought access to multiple agencies as part of its mission to hunt for wasteful spending and dramatically overhaul the federal government. Musk has falsely claimed that millions of Americans who are deceased are still receiving Social Security checks. Two labor unions and an advocacy group sued the SSA after DOGE began digging into personal data. They told the Supreme Court justices they shouldn't intervene because the administration hadn't shown an emergency need to access data beyond what the district judge allowed. In addition to overseeing Social Security benefits for retirees and disabled people, the Social Security Administration helps administer programs run by other agencies, including Medicare and Medicaid. A divided federal appeals court on April 30 rejected the Trump administration's request to block the district judge's order. U.S. Circuit Judge Robert King of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, said the government hadn't shown a need for unfettered access to the highly sensitive personal information that the American people had every reason to believe would be "fiercely protected." DOGE's mission can be largely accomplished through anonymized and redacted data, which is the usual way the agency has handled technology upgrades and fraud detection, he wrote.
NBC News
2 days ago
- NBC News
Live updates: Trump is 'not interested' in a make-up call with Musk, White House official says
What to know today President Donald Trump is " not interested" in a call with billionaire Elon Musk to try to patch things up after their public blowup yesterday. Their feud, which started over the GOP domestic policy bill that incorporates much of Trump's agenda, has Republicans worried about potential collateral damage ahead of next year's midterms. Republican senators, for their part, are now looking for ways to cut Medicare in the GOP bill. The president, meanwhile, is expected to sign more executive orders this afternoon.
