The Justice Department on Friday accused Walgreens of fueling the opioid epidemic that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people by filling millions of unlawful prescriptions across the country.
In December, the Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit accusing CVS Pharmacy of incentivizing pharmacists to fill illegal opioid prescriptions for more than a decade.
The lawsuit against Walgreens comes after four former employees filed whistleblower actions against the company, the Justice Department said.
Story continues below advertisement According to the Justice Department, Walgreens ignored evidence that its stores were filling unlawful prescriptions, and in fact systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions quickly.
Walgreens also prevented pharmacists from warning each other about certain prescribers, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department charged Walgreens on Friday with filling millions of illegal prescriptions nationwide, contributing to the opioid crisis that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Lawyers in the United States filed a lawsuit. A. The Justice Department said that the Northern District of Illinois District Court claims that since August 2012, Walgreens pharmacists have written millions of prescriptions for controlled substances that were either invalid or lacked a valid medical reason.
In a statement, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, who leads the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said, “This lawsuit aims to hold Walgreens accountable for the many years that it failed to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs.”.
The justice department’s attorneys claim that Walgreens’ pharmacists violated the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act by filling these legitimate prescriptions and then requesting reimbursement from various federal health care programs for many of them.
In a statement, the Walgreens Boots Alliance, the company that owns one of the biggest drugstore chains in the nation with over 8,000 pharmacies, said that they are requesting that the court “explain the responsibilities of pharmacies and pharmacists and to protect against the government’s attempt to enforce arbitrary ‘rules’ that do not appear in any law or regulation and never went through any official rulemaking process.”. “.”.
According to a statement released by the Walgreen Boots Alliance, “We will not stand by and allow the government to put our pharmacists in a no-win situation, trying to comply with ‘rules’ that simply do not exist.”.
Walgreens supports its pharmacists, committed medical professionals who reside in the communities they serve and who, in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations, fill valid prescriptions for FDA-approved drugs that have been written by DEA-licensed prescribers. “.”.
At least 500,000 people have died from overdoses nationwide as a result of the opioid epidemic, which has devastated communities all over the nation. A related lawsuit was filed by the Justice Department in December, alleging that CVS Pharmacy had been providing incentives to pharmacists to write illegal opioid prescriptions for over ten years.
According to the Justice Department, the lawsuit against Walgreens was brought after four former workers brought whistleblower claims against the business.
The Justice Department claims that Walgreens routinely pushed its pharmacists to fill prescriptions as soon as possible while ignoring evidence that its stores were filling illegal prescriptions. The Justice Department claimed that Walgreens kept pharmacists from alerting one another about specific prescribers.
“Walgreens and its pharmacists have a responsibility to make sure that each prescription they fill is valid and issued appropriately. According to the lawsuit, Walgreens disregarded warning signs of questionable prescribing practices and failed to fulfill its duty, DEA Principal Deputy Administrator George Papadopoulos said in a statement.