Retail pharmacy giant Walgreens “substantially contributed” to San Francisco’s opioid crisis by ignoring red flags and continuing to fill prescriptions for drugs that later flooded the city’s streets.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Walgreens failed to investigate suspicious opioid orders properly for nearly 15 years and said that the pharmaceutical chain’s neglect in that area contributed to the city’s drug crisis. This decision results from a month-long bench trial in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu sued Walgreens and several other drug manufacturers and distributors like Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma, and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in 2018 for public nuisance on behalf of the people of California.
At trial, the plaintiff had the burden of offering sufficient evidence to show Walgreens, more likely than not, knowingly engaged in unreasonable conduct that was a substantial factor in causing the San Francisco opioid epidemic. The court ruled this burden was met at trial.
Here’s what U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in a 112-page ruling, the culmination of a bench trial that unfolded over several months in federal court:
“The evidence at trial established that from 2006 to 2020, Walgreens pharmacies in San Francisco dispensed hundreds of thousands of red-flag opioid prescriptions without performing adequate due diligence.”
Tens of thousands of these prescriptions were ordered by doctors whose prescribing patterns were suspect, Breyer found, yet Walgreens did not sufficiently staff or train its pharmacies to investigate these suspicious orders. Rather, he said pharmacists were under “constant pressure to fill prescriptions as quickly as possible.”
“A subsequent trial will be held to determine the extent to which Walgreens must abate the public nuisance that it helped to create,” the judge ordered.
“Walgreens has regulatory obligations to take reasonable steps to prevent the drugs from being diverted and harming the public,” Breyer wrote. “The evidence at trial established that Walgreens breached these obligations.”
Peter Mougey, an attorney representing the city and other communities nationwide against big pharma companies, told The Washington Post that the verdict would help other cases.
“Walgreens has hidden, covered up, and run from the truth throughout the entirety of this five-year litigation,” he said. “Walgreens knew its system to detect and stop suspicious orders was nonexistent but continued to ship opioids at an alarming pace to increase profits.
“San Francisco is now one step closer to starting the healing process,” Mougey added.
The Daily Wire reported:
Other companies involved in the lawsuit include Allergan, Endo International, and the three biggest drug distributors nationwide — McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp., and Cardinal Health.
Walgreens remained the only company involved in the lawsuit that did not settle with the city before the court ruling.
Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engerman said the company was “disappointed” with the decision and would appeal, standing by its claim that the company never manufactured or marketed opioids.
“Nor did we distribute them to the ‘pill mills’ and internet pharmacies that fueled this crisis,” Fraser wrote in an email to The Washington Post.
Walgreens will face another trial at a later date to determine how much the company must pay the city for the damage it allegedly caused the city.
According to theU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the opioid epidemic caused more than half a million overdose deaths over the last 20 years.
Reuters reports that more than 3,300 lawsuits concerning opioids were filed against drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and other companies nationwide.
In 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration shut down one of Walgreens’ three controlled substance distribution centers because its failure to monitor for suspicious opioid orders posed an imminent threat of harm to public health and safety.
Walgreens stopped distributing controlled substances to its pharmacies entirely in 2014.
During a press conference Wednesday, City Attorney David Chiu said the verdict gives a voice to the overdose victims of the opioid epidemic.
“This crisis did not manifest out of thin air,” Chiu said. “Walgreens significantly contributed. Walgreens did not red flag suspicious orders and pharmacists were pressured to fill, fill, fill. Walgreens flooded our city with opioids.”
Sources: DailyWire, The Washington Post, KTVU, KRON 4, CDC, Reuters