Posted by Austin Chinsky.
The article discusses how “CVS Health Corp, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart agreed to pay $13.8 billion to resolve suits filed” according to two people familiar with the negotiations. It is broken down in that CVS pays $5 billion over 10 years, Walgreens $5.7 over 15, and Walmart paying $3.1 billion up front. In a historic sense, this is the first nationwide deal with retail pharmacy companies and more smaller lawsuits are expected to come.
Their reasoning is that the makers of these drugs downplayed the risks of their pain medicines, they also covered up the side effects as well as ignoring red flags which indicated prescriptions were being diverted into illegal trafficking. Their argument is citing the death toll, as well as cost on the health services and law enforcement was something the companies are responsible for.
During Covid-19, overdoses surged tremendously. The economic toll of the crisis in 2020 was $1.5 trillion. Also on the distributor level settlements were reported for $21 billion from the three largest, $5 billion from Johnson & Johnson, $4.35 billion from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, $2.37 billion from AbbVie and $450 million from Endo International. I believe this lawsuit is justified as the drugmakers purposely hid dangerous information for the public so they are responsible for the fallout damage.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/cvs-walmart-walgreens-agree-pay-13-8-b-settlement-report
Austin is a business major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2025.