After three weeks of trial accusing the country's largest chain drug store of contributing to an opioid epidemic in Florida, Walgreens Phamacy on May 4 agreed to settle the case for $683 million. The settlement also includes a one-time payment of $63 million for attorneys’ fees.
Funds are to be paid out over an 18-year period to pay for drug rehabilitation programs and education.
The settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing or liability by Walgreens.
Moody
“As the largest pharmacy chain in the state, we remain focused on and committed to being part of the solution, and believe this resolution is in the best interest of all parties involved and the communities we serve across Florida,” said Danielle Gray, executive vice president and global chief legal officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. “Our pharmacists are dedicated healthcare professionals who live and work in the communities they serve, and play a critical role in providing education and resources to help combat opioid misuse and abuse.”
Florida Attorney General Ashely Moody inherited the case from the former Attorney General Pam Bondi, who filed suit against the company in 2018.
At a press conference on Thursday, Moody said she was glad the case had been successfully resolved.
"I’m glad we’ve been able to end this monumental litigation and move past the courtroom," Moody was quoted in a Reuters report.
The trial was streamed live courtesy of Courtroom View Network.
Walgreen’s was the last holdout defendant in the case. In March, four other drug dispensing companies CVS Health Corp., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries LTD, Allergen and Endo International Plc all agreed to settle with the state for a combined $877 million.
This week’s settlement is not the first between Walgreens and Florida. In 2013, the company agreed to pay $80 million for violating the Controlled Substances Act and negligently allowing drugs to be diverted for abuse and black market sales. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration served Walgreens with suspension orders because of drugs being diverted. Six Walgreens stores were suspended including stores in Jupiter, Port Richey, Hudson, Ovedo and Fort Pierce.
Walgreens at the time was the largest provider of the drug OxyContin in the state.
Florida has to date recovered more than $3.6 billion in opioid lawsuits against drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, the AG’s Office said.
None of the defendants have admitted wrongdoing.
Walgreens had tried to claim immunity from being sued because of a 2012 settlement with Florida for $3,000, then the statutory maximum. Pasco County Judge Kimberly Sharpe Byrd agreed with state attorneys there was no exemption and the case went to trial while defense attorneys were appealing Sharpe’s decision.
During the trial’s run, plaintiff attorneys argued that Walgreens Pharmacy outlets in Florida irresponsibly filled drug prescriptions without monitoring suspicious orders, those customer orders larger or more frequent than normal buying patterns. The allegations also included the selling of drugs in black market transactions in the parking lots of Walgreens stores. Numerous warnings to Walgreens stores from law enforcement officials that the drug deals were taking place were ignored, state-called witnesses said.
Walgreens at the time was the state’s largest provider of the opioid drug OxyContin.
Plaintiff attorneys said the epidemic originally started in the 1990s when the medical community, misled in the beginning by a few “opioid revisionist doctors” and later by drug manufacturers and distributors, eased what had been a tight policy of prescribing opioids mostly for end-of-life and cancer treatments.
Pro-opioid dispensers called pain “the fifth vital sign,” similar to a person’s pulse, a claim the plaintiffs said was false.
They argued, instead of being conservative and cautious, doctors began recklessly prescribing opioid drugs for less serious non-cancer conditions such as back pain and joint aches. In addition, anti-drug diversion in-house programs required of the companies by the DEA were ineffective, too many suspicious orders and too few checkers.
Defense attorneys blamed the DEA for setting a maximum quota “threshold” allowing too many drugs to be manufactured. They also argued that others caused the epidemic - pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, distributors like McKesson Corp. and AmerisourceBergen, internet pharmacies and irresponsible clinics known as “pill mills.”
Officials of Purdue reached an $8.3 billion settlement agreement with the government in 2020 after admitting the company had knowingly conspired to aid doctors who were dispensing the drugs without a legitimate medical purpose.
An important plaintiff witness during the trial was Joe Rannazzisi. A former head of the Office for Diversion Control with the DEA serving 29 years, Rannazzisi appeared for two days as an expert witness for the State. While at the DEA until shortly before he retired in 2015, Rannazzisi oversaw an increase in the quotas that set how many opioid pills manufacturers can sell. He came to national fame in 2018 after appearing on “60 Minutes” criticizing federal opioid policy as too lax.
During his testimony Rannazzisi said he was foregoing his usual $500 per hour fee as an expert witness for plaintiffs suing the drug companies, and only being paid travel expenses, because Walgreens needed to be held accountable.
“Every registrant (store) has an obligation to maintain control over diversion,” Rannazzisi said. “We’re dealing with things that can kill people. You must look for red flags (suspicious orders).”
“Did Walgreens maintain effective controls?” a state attorney asked. “What was your conclusion?”
“They did not maintain effective controls,” Rannazzisi said.
The case was settled before defense attorneys had the chance to call their own expert witnesses to the stand. However, during opening remarks, Walgreens attorney Steve Derringer said pharmacists were not in a position to second-guess the pain pill prescriptions coming from doctors and were only doing their jobs.
"These are judgements pharmacies make every day from behind the counter,” he said. “It’s good-faith dispensing. That’s company policy. In the 1980s and '90s there was a change. It used to be if you had chronic pain, there wasn’t much could be done about it. There was an increasing recognition that people with pain should be treated, not ignored.”
"The Purdues of the world caused it (the epidemic),” Derringer added. “They misrepresented to pharmacies.”
A similar opioid trial is ongoing in West Virginia. Earlier this week, Washington State settled its case against drug distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. for $518 million.