Justice Department Sues Walmart Over Opioid Prescriptions
The U.S. Department of Justice has submitted a civil criticism versus Walmart over its role in the opioid disaster, alleging unlawful perform by the organization resulted in hundreds of thousands of violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
In a statement, the Justice Department reported Walmart knowingly stuffed thousands of managed compound prescriptions that were not issued for genuine professional medical purposes. It also alleged that the organization unsuccessful to report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
“As a single of the major pharmacy chains and wholesale drug distributors in the place, Walmart had the accountability and the implies to aid avert the diversion of prescription opioids,” Performing Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division Jeffrey Bossert Clark reported. “Instead, for years, it did the reverse — filling thousands of invalid prescriptions at its pharmacies and failing to report suspicious orders of opioids and other medication put by people pharmacies. This unlawful perform contributed to the epidemic of opioid abuse throughout the United States.
The DOJ reported Walmart confronted civil penalties of $67,627 for each individual unlawful prescription stuffed and $fifteen,691 for each individual suspicious purchase.
In a statement Walmart reported the accommodate was an attempt to shift blame absent from the DEA, which had unsuccessful to retain “bad doctors” from prescribing unsafe medication improperly.
“The Justice Department’s investigation is tainted by historic ethics violations, and this lawsuit invents a lawful concept that unlawfully forces pharmacists to arrive among sufferers and their medical doctors and is riddled with factual inaccuracies and cherry-picked files taken out of context,” the organization reported.
Walmart reported it blocked thousands of questionable medical doctors and sent “tens of thousands” of investigative leads to the DEA.
In October, the DOJ announced it had solved its criminal and civil investigations into Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler relatives, makers of the impressive painkiller OxyContin. That settlement included $8 billion in penalties and guilty pleas to 3 felonies.
