Last week, a federal jury in Cleveland found that three large pharmacy chains — CVS Health, Walmart, and Walgreens — played a substantial role in the opioid epidemic in two Ohio counties, Lake and Trumbull. This ruling marks the first time in the decades-long crisis that the retail section of the drug industry has been held responsible.
Pharmacy Chains Found Guilty in Recent Trial
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the pharmacy chains had repeatedly ignored numerous red flags about questionable opioid orders, both at the counters where patients picked up their prescriptions and at corporate headquarters. Following hearings to be held this spring, the trial judge will decide how much each company must pay.
“It’s the first opioid trial against these major households names,” explained Adam Zimmerman, a mass litigation professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “They have been the least willing group of defendants to settle, so this verdict is at least a small sign to them that these cases won’t necessarily play out well in front of judges.” He believes some pharmacy defendants may choose to settle instead of going to trial.
Prior to this ruling, the public nuisance argument was rejected twice in cases against opioid manufacturers, in both California and Oklahoma. The judges ruled that, based on each state’s public nuisance laws, the companies were too far removed from the overdoses and deaths to be declared at fault.
Still, plaintiffs in thousands of lawsuits across the nation found the verdict to be encouraging. They are all relying on the same trial strategy: that pharmacies contributed to the “public nuisance” in the opioid crisis.
What’s Next for Opioid Epidemic Lawsuits
Zimmerman noted the opioid lawsuits still have a long way to go. “It’s more like there are many different ballgames going on at once, each with slightly different rules, and we’re in the early innings of almost all of them,” he said. Plus, because each state has slightly different public nuisance laws, the recent outcome may have little bearing on upcoming cases.
The first opioid case was filed in 2014. Despite thousands of ongoing trials, the urgency of getting help to deeply-impacted communities has not slowed. In fact, new data released earlier this month shows that deaths from opioids reached record levels during the pandemic, driven by illegal drugs like heroin and street fentanyl.
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Additional Reading:
Johnson & Johnson Agrees to $297M Opioid Deal with Texas, National Deal Faces Holdouts
Tentative Opioid Settlement For $26 Billion Focuses on Treatment, Prevention, and Education