$50 billion settlement won by state and local governments suing opioid industry players for flooding the country with addictive drugs, despite red flags that the money is being diverted to the black market join above.
The government aims to use the money to mitigate the opioid crisis and save lives. These include paying for overdose drugs, strengthening addiction treatment services, and creating educational campaigns.
Even though far fewer people die from prescription drug overdoses, the country’s addiction crisis is still raging. In recent years, the drug crisis has been fueled by illegal fentanyl manufactured in a secret lab in Mexico and smuggled into the United States. According to federal estimates, more than 110,000 people will die from overdoses in 2022, two-thirds of them from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
Lawyers representing state and other governments have hailed the settlement as the first to involve a local supermarket pharmacy.
“Many of the lawsuits against the local pharmacy defendants are still pending, and we will continue to vigorously pursue these remaining lawsuits,” said Jane Conroy, attorney, member of the Plaintiffs’ Counsel Executive Committee. Attorneys Paul T. Farrell Jr. and Joe Rice said in a statement.
Lawyers say local governments in 33 states, as well as Washington, D.C., can participate in the settlement. Payments are expected to begin in December.
Other big chains like CVS, Walgreens and Walmart have also announced settlements to settle thousands of opioid-related lawsuits.
Kroger, which operates more than 2,200 pharmacies nationwide, has denied wrongdoing but said in a statement that the settlement is a “milestone” in resolving opioid lawsuits.
“This is an important milestone in our efforts to resolve pending opioid lawsuits and support opioid reduction efforts,” Kroger said in a statement.
The announcement comes as Kroger seeks to merge with Albertsons, another of the country’s largest grocery chains, but the deal is still subject to regulatory approval. The companies announced Friday they would sell 413 stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, a move intended to appease the Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust regulators.
The company confirmed in a news release that it expects to lose $1.4 billion during the second quarter of 2023. On Friday’s second-quarter earnings call, Kroger Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip said the settlement and payment would not affect the company’s results. the company’s ability to complete the proposed merger;
In recent months, Kroger has settled an opioid lawsuit. west virginia at $68 million, new mexico at $58.5 million.
The states claim pharmacy chains were among the many companies that failed to detect suspicious orders for addictive pain relievers. Salt Lake County, Utah, filed a lawsuit last month alleging that Kroger flooded the county with more than 69 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone tablets between 2006 and 2014.
The Drug Enforcement Administration requires companies to flag suspicious orders for controlled substances. According to the complaint, Kroger acted as a distributor and dispenser of the pills and “instead of taking meaningful action to stop the flow of opioids into the community, was complicit in, and profited from, the oversupply of opioids.” I kept getting it.”
Jeff Gadi, plaintiffs’ attorney for Levin Papantonio Rafferty, said the settlement “holds accountability for all parties that have contributed to the opioid epidemic that has claimed so many lives and affected so many people. “It’s another step in fulfilling our promise to ask.”
Jaclyn Peiser contributed to this report.
