Walgreens filled one in four opioid prescriptions in Florida between 1999 and 2020, and failed to investigate red flags that may have prevented the drugs from being diverted for illegal purposes, state attorney says , Jim Webster, as the jurors heard opening statements at the New Port Richey trial.
“Walgreens was the last line of defense to prevent the inappropriate distribution of opioids,” Webster added. “It was the entity that actually put opioids into the hands of opioid addicts and into the hands of criminals.”
Walgreens, who has denied the allegations, is the last remaining defendant in the lawsuit before Judge Kimberly Sharpe Byrd at Pasco County Circuit Court.
Florida previously reached $878 million settlements with CVS Health Corp, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, the Allergan unit of Abbvie Inc and Endo International Plc.
Steven Derringer, Walgreen’s attorney, said in his opening statement that the drugstore chain was filling doctors’ prescriptions and not ignoring red flags in an effort to flood Florida with opioids.
“There are so many pills because doctors have written so many prescriptions for pain medication,” Derringer said.
Florida has spent more than $14 billion addressing the state’s opioid crisis, and opioid overdoses have caused nearly 40,000 deaths from 1999 to 2020, Webster told jurors.
Webster said Walgreens deserves a “huge share of responsibility” for overdose deaths and increased state spending.
Derringer countered that other people should be blamed for the state’s opioid epidemic, including drugmakers who lied to pharmacies about addiction risk, officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who endorsed the sale of opioids for chronic pain and doctors who wrote unnecessary prescriptions.
According to Attorney General Ashley Moody, Florida has received more than $3 billion in opioid litigation against drug manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies. Most of it will be spent on efforts to alleviate the opioid crisis in the state.
In March, CVS Health Corp agreed to pay Florida $484 million. Teva will pay $194.8 million, Allergan $134.2 million and Endo $65 million.
The national opioid crisis has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States over the past two decades, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.