By Connor Hart
The Department of Justice filed suit against CVS Health, alleging that the world's largest pharmacy chain contributed to the opioid crisis by knowingly filling unlawful prescriptions for more than a decade.
The complaint, announced Wednesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island, said that CVS since October 2013 has been filling prescriptions for controlled substances that lack legitimate medical purposes, are invalid and were not issued in the usual course of professional practice.
Among these filled prescriptions were excessive quantities and early fills of opioids, as well as trinity prescriptions, which are drugs made up of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant, according to the suit.
CVS ignored substantial evidence from multiple sources including its own pharmacists and internal data that indicated its stores were dispensing unlawful prescriptions, the complaint alleges.
The Justice Department said these violations are the result of corporate-mandated performance metrics, incentive compensation and staffing policies that prioritized profits over safety. "CVS set staffing levels far too low for pharmacists to both meet their performance metrics and comply with their legal obligations," it said.
"We have cooperated with the DOJ's investigation for more than four years, and we strongly disagree with the allegations and false narrative within this complaint," CVS spokeswoman Kara Page said. "We will defend ourselves vigorously against this misguided federal lawsuit, which follows on the heels of years of litigation over these issues by state and local governments-claims that already have been largely resolved by a global agreement with the participating state Attorneys General."
Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 18, 2024 18:27 ET (23:27 GMT)
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