CVS, Walgreens Settle Opioid Lawsuits for $10 Billion
The two pharmaceutical mega-chains said that the agreements represented no admission of wrongdoing on their part.
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CVS and Walgreens have reached tentative agreements to pay about $5 billion each to settle thousands of lawsuits over their role in the opioids crisis, reports Jan Hoffman for the New York Times. Finalization is conditional on an overwhelming majority of plaintiffs, including state, municipal and tribal governments, signing on. CVS said that over the next 10 years, it would pay $4.9 billion to states and municipal governments and about $130 million to tribes under the agreement.
Walgreens said it would pay $4.79 billion over 15 years to the states and $154.5 million to the tribes. It would also pay $753.5 million in lawyers’ fees and costs, over six years. Both CVS and Walgreens said that the agreements represented no admission of wrongdoing on their part. Lawyers negotiating on behalf of cities and counties across the country urged plaintiffs to work toward a final deal.
The exact amount would depend on how many governmental entities accept the terms of the deal. In the lawsuits, state governments said pharmacies were filling prescriptions that they should have flagged as inappropriate.
