Walgreens, Walmart and CVS Pharmacies Contributed to Opioid Epidemic, Ohio Jury Finds

A federal jury in Cleveland on Tuesday found that the companies owning CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies were liable for contributing to the opioid epidemic in two Ohio counties—the first, potentially influential verdict among many lawsuits targeting pharmacy chains.

In the suit, attorneys for Lake and Trumbull counties in northeastern Ohio had argued that the chains failed to stop pain pills from flooding the counties and false prescriptions from being filled. The counties argued that by enabling the opioid crisis the pharmacy companies had created a public nuisance costing them each about $1 billion in law-enforcement, social-services and court expenses.

The companies argued that they had tried to stop pills from being illegally diverted and followed procedures required by federal and state regulators. They said that others were to blame in the crisis and that the counties had failed to show that the pharmacies played a major role in the epidemic.

The verdict, delivered after a six-week trial, came in a so-called bellwether case that attorneys elsewhere have watched closely. Similar cases across the country continue to play out against pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, but Tuesday’s verdict was the first against deep-pocketed pharmacy chains.

Bellwether cases typically don’t carry precedential weight, but lawyers on similar cases across the country often use them as guideposts for settlement talks.

Although judges in opioid cases in Oklahoma and California recently issued judgments against plaintiffs’ public-nuisance claims in cases involving drugmakers, some legal experts said it was difficult to say whether the Ohio case could meet a similar fate on appeal. Public-nuisance laws vary by state, adding to the possibility of different results in different jurisdictions.

“The public-nuisance theory in general is pretty novel and untested as it applies to the sale of controlled substances,” said Elizabeth Burch, a University of Georgia law professor. “We’re so early in the overall distribution that we don’t know whether these are outliers or trendsetters.”

Lawyers for the plaintiffs hailed Tuesday’s verdict.

“For decades, pharmacy chains have watched as the pills flowing out of their doors cause harm and failed to take action as required by law,” they said in a joint statement. “Instead, these companies responded by opening up more locations, flooding communities with pills, and facilitating the flow of opioids into an illegal, secondary market.”

All three companies said they planned to appeal the verdict, arguing that Ohio’s public-nuisance law had been applied incorrectly in the case. [MORE]