Walmart, Walgreens and CVS were ordered by an Ohio judge Wednesday to pay $650.6 million to two counties in this northern US state for their role in the opioid crisis.
“A federal judge has been convicted [essas três empresas] It will pay $650.6 million to Lake and Trumbull Counties in Ohio,” according to a statement by The Lanier Law Firm, the law firm that defends these places.
This amount will allow “to finance education and prevention programs and to reimburse institutions and organizations for expenditures made to face the crisis”.
In a statement, Walmart announced its intention to appeal the decision and denounced it as a process “filled with legal and factual errors”.
Three retail chains that distribute painkillers in bulk to these two counties in the United States were convicted in November last year.
Lawyers from both Ohio states were able to convince jurors that the massive presence of opiates was a public issue and that pharmacies had played a role for years, ignoring warning signs about questionable prescriptions.
Lawyer for both counties, Mark Lanier, quoted in the statement, said county officials “asked for compensation for the burden of a sustained drug epidemic for corporate greed, negligence and accountability for these drug chains.”
Pharmacy chains, on the other hand, claim that pharmacists respect legal prescriptions made by doctors who only prescribe substances approved by health authorities.
Some parties have entered into agreements with Lake and Trumbull County to settle claims in exchange for financial compensation. This is the case of the drugstore chains Rite Aid and Giant Eagle.
The health crisis, which has resulted in more than 500,000 opioid overdose deaths in the United States in 20 years, has led to many lawsuits.
As in California and Oklahoma, the condemnation of opium producers on the basis of public problems has also suffered setbacks.
Last year, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid and Walmart agreed to pay a total of $26 million to the two New York states.
source: Noticias
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