Walmart reached a $50 million settlement on Friday with the Justice Department, resolving allegations that its pharmacies unlawfully dispensed opioids and fueled the nation’s drug epidemic.
The federal government’s lawsuit accused the retail giant of doing so through its nationwide pharmacy operations, alleging that this resulted in hundreds of thousands of violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
The federal government said in its December 2020 filing that Walmart accelerated the drug crisis that led to over 800,000 deaths.
It alleged that since 2013, Walmart knowingly filled invalid prescriptions and let prescribers continue operating as “pill mills.”
Members of the company’s compliance team allegedly knew of the prescribers’ conduct because Walmart’s pharmacists reported it to the retail giant’s corporate compliance team, including through thousands of “refusal-to-fill” forms.
The compliance team reacted by calling “sales and patient awareness” as “a far better use of our Market Directors and Market manager’s time,” according to an email disclosed by the Justice Department.
The lawsuit followed a multiyear investigation by the Justice Department.
If Walmart had been found liable, it could have faced civil penalties of up to $67,627 for each unlawful prescription filled and $15,691 for each suspicious order not reported, according to the Justice Department. This could have totaled in the billions of dollars.
Walmart also entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration to establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing of controlled substances, proactively monitor its pharmacies’ dispensing patterns to identify and address potentially illegal dispensing, and establish a process to evaluate prescribers suspected of illegal prescribing.
“Today’s settlement proves this Department is committed to putting Americans’ flourishing first,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement. “Congress enacted laws to promote responsibility and accountability for companies who dispense controlled substances to protect Americans. This Department will never shy away from vigorously enforcing pharmacies’ obligations to comply with those protections, ensuring that potential profits never justify aiding our Nation’s opioid epidemic.”
A Walmart spokesperson said the company is “pleased to resolve this matter and will continue supporting the exceptional work our pharmacists do every day to provide outstanding patient care.”
The Justice Department agreed, saying in a statement that it is “pleased to have reached a settlement with Walmart resolving allegations that its pharmacies failed to comply with their obligations under the Controlled Substances Act in dispensing opioids and other controlled substances.”
This follows a $3.1 billion settlement in 2022, with Walmart resolving thousands of similar opioid-related lawsuits brought by state and local governments.
CVS and Walgreens also reached multibillion-dollar settlements over similar claims.
