CVS Health has announced an agreement in principle, that would make it the first big pharmacy chain to reach a nationwide settlement of lawsuits about how it handled prescriptions for potent and addictive prescription opioid painkillers that are linked to an overdose epidemic.
If the agreement is approved, the Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based corporation will pay $5 billion over ten years, making it one of the largest settlements related to the crisis. Other pharmacies have partnerships with specific states, including Rite Aid, Walgreens, and Walmart.
When CVS disclosed its quarterly profits on Wednesday, it also announced its proposed merger. The business indicated that non-financial issues are still being worked out but made no admissions of fault or misconduct.
“We are pleased to resolve these longstanding claims and putting them behind us is in the best interest of all parties, as well as our customers, colleagues, and shareholders,” Thomas Moriarty, the CVS chief policy officer, and general counsel said in a statement. “We are committed to working with states, municipalities, and tribes, and will continue our important initiatives to help reduce the illegitimate use of prescription opioids. (https://www.leankitchenco.com/) ”
In addition to other initiatives aimed at reducing opioid misuse, the firm has introduced educational programs and set up secure drug disposal facilities in pharmacies and police departments.
Proposed Settlement agreement by CVS
By the settlement agreement, CVS would pay $130 million to Native American tribes over the following ten years, as well as $4.9 billion to state and local governments. How many governmental organizations agree to the deal’s conditions will determine the exact amount.
With the proposed agreement, there have been over $45 billion in finalized and concluded settlements between businesses and governments countrywide. According to the agreements, the majority of the funds must be spent to combat the ongoing epidemic.
Deaths relating to Opioid
Over the past 20 years, opioids have been blamed for more than 500,000 deaths in the United States. Prescription medicines were initially a factor in the majority of deaths. People with opiate use disorders increasingly shifted to heroin, which proved more lethal, as governments, medical professionals, and businesses adopted measures to make them harder to abuse and get.
Opioid-related fatalities have reached historic highs in recent years, hovering around 80,000 each year. The majority of those fatalities contain fentanyl, a potent synthetic narcotic that is widely available in the U.S. illegal drug market and is created illegally in the majority of those cases.
As litigation regarding the contribution of pharmacies to the opioid problem has intensified, the settlement was announced. On Tuesday, a court supervising the opioid case received papers from 18 companies, the majority of them pharmacy-related, outlining the claims they are facing.
Only a few opioid settlements have included financial amounts greater than the CVS plan. This year, manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson reached a $5 billion payment and a $21 billion total settlement.
The Sackler family, who own Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, and the corporation, have suggested a settlement that includes up to $6 billion in cash and the assets of the business, which would be transformed into a new entity and its earnings utilized to fight the epidemic. A court has ordered a halt to that scheme.