Economic Rules Hub
  • World
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
Home Business DOJ sues Walgreens, alleging it ‘knowingly’ filled millions of invalid prescriptions
Business

DOJ sues Walgreens, alleging it ‘knowingly’ filled millions of invalid prescriptions

by admin January 19, 2025
January 19, 2025

The Department of Justice said Friday that it sued pharmacy giant Walgreens over allegedly dispensing millions of unlawful prescriptions.

The DOJ said that Walgreens from August 2012 until the present “knowingly” filled those prescriptions, which “lacked a legitimate medical purpose, were not valid, and/or were not issued in the usual course of professional practice.” 

“This lawsuit seeks to hold Walgreens accountable for the many years that it failed to meet its obligations when dispensing dangerous opioids and other drugs,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian Boynton, head of the DOJ’s Civil Division.

Boynton said that Walgreens pharmacists filled millions of prescriptions with “clear red flags that indicated the prescriptions were highly likely to be unlawful.”

The company “systematically pressured its pharmacists to fill prescriptions, including controlled substance prescriptions, without taking the time needed to confirm their validity,” Boynton said. “These practices allowed millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Walgreens stores.”

Some Walgreens patients died of overdose deaths shortly after getting invalid prescriptions filled at Walgreens, the DOJ alleges.

The 300-page lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago.

Walgreens in a statement said, “We are asking the court to clarify the responsibilities of pharmacies and pharmacists and to protect against the government’s attempt to enforce arbitrary ‘rules’ that do not appear in any law or regulation and never went through any official rulemaking process.”

“We will not stand by and allow the government to put our pharmacists in a no-win situation, trying to comply with ‘rules’ that simply do not exist,” Walgreens said.

“Walgreens stands behind our pharmacists, dedicated healthcare professionals who live in the communities they serve, filling legitimate prescriptions for FDA-approved medications written by DEA-licensed prescribers in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

The suit alleges that although Walgreens issued written policies that reflected its understanding of legal obligations, the company took other actions which it knew prevented its pharmacists from complying with them.

“Walgreens prioritized profits over safety and compliance by implementing policies and practices that required pharmacists to fill prescriptions quickly and left pharmacists without enough time or resources to exercise their corresponding responsibility,” the suit said.

“One such metric was ‘Verify By Promise Time’ (VBPT), which expected a pharmacist to fill a prescription within 15 minutes for a ‘waiter’ (a customer waiting in the pharmacy store for the prescription),” the suit alleges.

“Walgreens also tracked pharmacists that dispensed a low rate of controlled substances through its ‘Non-dispensing Pharmacist Report,’” the suit said.

“Walgreens created this metric in part because it believed pharmacists who refused to fill controlled-substance prescriptions compromised Walgreens’s customer service.”

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS

0
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
previous post
Trump holds ‘very good’ phone call with China’s President Xi
next post
Tech 5: Trump to Prioritize Crypto, Biden Blocks AI Chip Exports

Related Posts

Tesla stock sinks as Musk and Trump ridicule each other

June 9, 2025

Trump implies government could cut contracts and subsidies to Musk’s...

June 8, 2025

Procter & Gamble to cut 7,000 jobs as part of...

June 7, 2025

Shein and Temu see U.S. demand plunge as loophole for...

June 6, 2025

This California startup is cleaning water and removing CO₂ from...

June 6, 2025

Nationwide coordinated retail crime crackdown results in hundreds of arrests,...

June 5, 2025

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free


    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent

    • Soldiers return home after years in captivity as Ukraine-Russia prisoner swap begins

      June 10, 2025
    • China to make all hospitals offer epidurals to incentivize childbirth

      June 10, 2025
    • Canada plans to hit NATO spending target early and reduce reliance on US defense, Carney says

      June 10, 2025
    • Russia strikes Kyiv and Odesa with aerial attacks, at least two people wounded, officials say

      June 10, 2025
    • Teenage TikTok star’s murder leaves Pakistani women questioning whether any safe spaces exist – online or on the street

      June 10, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (1,396)
    • Investing (3,417)
    • Politics (4,574)
    • World (4,489)
    • Email Whitelisting
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contacts
    • About us

    Disclaimer: EconomicRulesHub.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2024 EconomicRulesHub.com | All Rights Reserved

    Economic Rules Hub
    • World
    • Politics
    • Business
    • Investing