Justice Division lawsuit accuses Walgreens of filling hundreds of thousands of illegal opioid prescriptions

The U.S. Division of Justice filed a lawsuit on Friday accusing Walgreens of filling hundreds of thousands of illegal opioid prescriptions.

The civil swimsuit filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of Illinois Walgreen Boots Alliance, Walgreen Co. and its quite a lot of subsidiaries alleges the drugstore massive knowingly stuffed hundreds of thousands of illegal prescriptions for managed components from roughly August 2012 via to the current. Walgreens allegedly stuffed prescriptions for unhealthy and over the top amounts of opioids, the lawsuit stated, together with early refills amongst different prescriptions. 

“Our criticism alleges that Walgreens pharmacists stuffed hundreds of thousands of managed substance prescriptions with transparent crimson flags that indicated the prescriptions had been extremely prone to be illegal, and that Walgreens systematically confused its pharmacists to fill prescriptions, together with managed substance prescriptions, with out taking the time had to verify their validity,” Most important Deputy Assistant Lawyer Basic Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Division’s Civil Department stated in a commentary. “Those practices allowed hundreds of thousands of opioid tablets and different managed components to glide illegally out of Walgreens shops.”

 Walgreens pharmacists stuffed those illegal prescriptions in spite of transparent “crimson flags,” the criticism alleges, and the drugstore massive overlooked considerable proof from a couple of resources that its shops had been dishing out illegal prescriptions, together with from its personal pharmacists and inner information, the swimsuit claims.

Pharmacists had been confused to fill prescriptions briefly with out taking the time had to verify every prescription’s validity, the criticism stated. Walgreens additionally disadvantaged pharmacists of the most important data and averted them from caution one every other about positive prescribers.

4 other whistleblowers who up to now labored for Walgreens in quite a lot of portions of the rustic filed whistleblower movements, the commentary stated. 

Walgreens answered to the lawsuit in a commentary on its web page which learn that it stands “in the back of our pharmacists, devoted healthcare execs who reside within the communities they serve, filling authentic prescriptions for FDA-approved medicines written through DEA-licensed prescribers based on all acceptable regulations and laws.”

“We sit up for the chance to shield the professionalism and integrity of our pharmacists,” the commentary stated.

Remaining month the Justice Division filed a an identical lawsuit towards CVS, alleging the drugstore chain stuffed prescriptions with unhealthy and over the top amounts of opioids, agreed to fill opioid prescriptions early and made “trinity prescriptions,” which can be a deadly aggregate of gear.

Walgreens is without doubt one of the nation’s biggest pharmacy chains, with over 8,000 pharmacies around the U.S. Walgreens plans to near masses of shops through the top of 2025 to show round its flagging gross sales, and has already closed more or less 2,000 places during the last decade, the corporate stated.