Walmart Pays $50 Million to Settle Opioid Suit Over 37.5 Million Drug Orders
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Aug 29
Walmart Pays $50 Million to Settle Opioid Suit Over 37.5 Million Drug Orders
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 29
Summary
$50 million will resolve Justice Department claims that Walmart pharmacies filled hundreds of thousands of suspicious opioid prescriptions and failed to report warning signs that helped fuel the U.S. drug crisis.
Court papers said Walmart shipped about 37.5 million controlled-substance orders to its pharmacies over roughly four years but reported only 204 suspicious orders to the DEA.
The lawsuit also cited internal warnings that were allegedly ignored to drive sales, including more than 3,500 controlled-substance prescriptions filled for a Florida doctor pharmacists had flagged as “shady.”
The settlement requires Walmart to set up a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing and to monitor pharmacy dispensing patterns more closely.
The deal adds to broader opioid accountability efforts after Walmart's $3.1 billion 2022 settlement with local governments and tribes; CDC data show about 806,000 opioid overdose deaths from 1999 to 2023.