Walgreens and the Attorney General’s Office will square off in a jury trial beginning this week in New Port Richey in an attempt to determine the company’s role in the state’s opioid epidemic.
A new release from Attorney General Ashley Moody accuses Walgreens of fueling the deadly epidemic, which she said caused suffering to Florida families and sapped taxpayer resources in the state. The widespread distribution of the narcotics led to thousands of overdose deaths in Florida, according to the attorney general's lawsuit against several defendants in 2018.
Walgreens is the only defendant targeted by Moody’s office that has not agreed to a settlement in the ongoing litigation. Other pharmaceutical companies have so far agreed to provide the state with billions of dollars to help deal with the effects of the addictive drugs.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said her office would outline evidence that Walgreens helped to fuel the opioid crisis.
| Florida Attorney General's Office
“I am encouraged that all the other defendants in our historic opioid litigation stepped up, and we recovered more than $3 billion to help Florida address the devastation caused by the opioid epidemic,” Moody said in a prepared statement. “It’s time for Walgreens to face accountability for their part in fueling the opioid crisis, and my team is prepared to vigorously try our strong case against them.”
Walgreens, however, denies culpability in Florida’s crisis involving opioid pain killer medications.
“Walgreens never manufactured or marketed opioids, nor did we distribute them to the pain clinics, internet pharmacies and ‘pill mills’ that fueled this crisis,” Fraser Engerman, a Walgreens spokesman, told the Florida Record in an email. “We will continue to defend against the unjustified attacks on the professionalism of our pharmacists, dedicated healthcare professionals who live in the Florida communities they serve.”
The Attorney General’s Office alleges that Walgreens did play a role in dispensing and distributing opioids in the state. A Walgreens drug distribution center supplied 2.2 million tablets to a single Walgreens pharmacy in Hudson – enough medicine to supply each of the city’s 12,000 residents with a six-month supply of such drugs, according to Moody’s office.
Several former defendants in the opioid litigation filed by the attorney general – CVS Health Corp., CVS Pharmacy Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries and Allergan – will provide $870 million to the state in a securement recently announced by Moody’s office.
Opening arguments in the Walgreens trial are set to begin around April 11.
Walgreens had asked to halt the trial while an appeals court decides whether it has immunity under a 2012 settlement with the state under then-AG Pam Bondi.
Ten years ago, the state negotiated a settlement for $3,000, then the statutory maximum, following a Drug Enforcement Administration probe of Walgreens’ Jupiter, Fla. wholesale operation.
In the pending appeal, Walgreens argues the settlement agreement covered all “complaints arising from or relating to the allegations,” which included failing to operate an effective prescription order monitoring system.
Pasco County Judge Kimberly Sharpe Byrd denied the company’s motion for summary judgment on March 11. Walgreens filed an appeal seeking to delay trial, stating it “will be a monumental waste of judicial, party, and jury time and resources” if the appeals court ultimately agrees Walgreens should be dismissed from the case. Even if the settlement only covers claims dating back to 2012, the company said, the trial would be futile since Walgreens could win a post-verdict ruling that the jury was prejudiced by hearing evidence about pre-2012 activities.