Walgreens fed opioid addiction, Florida says as trial starts (updated)

Endo International

11/04/2022 15:46

(Recasts with start of trial, opening statement from Florida
lawyer)
    By Dietrich Knauth
    April 11 (Reuters) - Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc  WBA.O 
supplied billions of opioid pills to drug addicts and criminals,
contributing to an addiction epidemic in Florida, a lawyer for
the state said on Monday as a civil trial against the pharmacy
chain got underway.
    Walgreens filled one in four opioid prescriptions in Florida
between 1999 and 2020, and failed to investigate red flags that
could have prevented drugs from being diverted for illegal use,
the state's lawyer Jim Webster told jurors.
    "Walgreens was the last line of defense in preventing
improper distribution of opioids," Webster said. "It was the
entity that actually put the opioids in the hands of people
addicted to opioids and the hands of criminals."
    The company has denied the allegations, saying it filled
prescriptions written by doctors. 
    Walgreens is the final remaining defendant in the trial
taking place before Judge Kimberly Sharpe Byrd in Pasco County
Circuit Court, after the state reached $878 million in
settlements with four others.
    Pharmacy chain rival CVS Health Corp  CVS.N  agreed to pay
$484 million, while drugmakers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Ltd  TEVA.TA  will pay $194.8 million, Abbvie Inc's  ABBV.N 
Allergan unit will pay $134.2 million and Endo International Plc
 ENDP.O  will pay $65 million.  L2N2VX2DY 
    Walgreens has argued it was immune from being sued based on
a mere $3,000 settlement it reached with Florida in 2012,
following an investigation into its record-keeping policies and
efforts to prevent the diversion of opioid drugs.
    The company has said Florida was bound by that accord even
if it now regretted the terms as a "bad bargain."
    Florida has called Walgreens' position "absurd," saying the
settlement addressed only a single record-keeping violation.
    Florida has collected more than $3 billion in opioid
litigation against drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies,
according to Attorney General Ashley Moody. Most will be spent
on efforts to mitigate the opioid crisis in the state.
    The nationwide opioid crisis has included more than 500,000
U.S. deaths from overdoses in the past two decades, according to
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.    

 (Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
 ((Dietrich.Knauth@thomsonreuters.com;))