Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Monday sued Walgreens, taking aim at the pharmacy chain for its role in the opioid epidemic.
At a Monday news conference in Little Rock, Rutledge alleged the pharmacy giant failed to flag "suspicious orders" of painkillers, helping to fuel an opioid crisis that devastated the state and the country.
"Walgreens has a legal responsibility to report suspicious orders and suspicious prescriptions," Rutledge said. "And by failing to do so they enabled the black market of prescription drugs to increase dramatically, thus leading to more, greater addiction and more lives lost in the state of Arkansas."
Walgreens in turn denied wrongdoing.
While opioid manufacturers and distributors have been the main targets of lawsuits from states and municipalities around the country, fewer have targeted pharmacy chains like Walgreens.
In its 36-page civil complaint in Pulaski County Circuit Court, the state alleged Walgreens, which has 79 stores in Arkansas, didn't properly vet the large number of opioid prescriptions and orders that were coming into its pharmacies. While pharmaceutical companies make and distribute drugs, pharmacies like Walgreens are the "final step" in the supply chain, the lawsuit claims.
While manufacturers made and pushed the drugs, Walgreens failed to put controls on large orders of addictive painkillers -- something it profited from -- according to the lawsuit. In Arkansas, Walgreens dispensed 142 million doses of oxycodone and hydrocodone from 2006 to 2014, Rutledge said.
Through a spokesman, Walgreens denied any wrongdoing, saying it, like other pharmacies, is required to fill legitimate prescriptions if they're written by a doctor and there is "no reason to question its legitimacy."
Fraser Engerman, a Walgreens spokesman, said pharmacists at the Illinois-based pharmacy chain are "equipped with robust policies and procedures" and evaluate prescriptions before filling them.
"We take great pride in the judgment of our pharmacy professionals, whose primary focus is, and always has been the health, safety and wellbeing of our patients," Engerman said in a statement. "Walgreens will vigorously defend itself against this litigation."
SETTLEMENT SOUGHT
The state's lawsuit against Walgreens is seeking a settlement and an injunction to make Walgreens comply with the state's consumer protection laws.
While Rutledge wouldn't comment on a potential amount for a settlement with Walgreens, she hinted toward one, saying recovered damages from the lawsuit could go toward state programs geared at fighting the crisis.
"Right now, we are looking to hold them accountable, but there is not a multimillion-dollar number we have in mind," Rutledge said.
While most of the legal fights over culpability for the opioid epidemic have targeted pharmaceutical manufacturers, Arkansas' lawsuit against a pharmacy chain isn't the first. In May, two counties in Ohio filed suit in federal court against Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart and Giant Eagle.
In December, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Walmart over the role investigators alleged the Bentonville retailer played in the opioid crisis. That 160-page civil complaint claimed that Walmart pharmacies "knowingly filled thousands of controlled substance prescriptions that were not issued for legitimate medical purposes or in the usual course of medical practice, and that it filled prescriptions outside the ordinary course of pharmacy practice."
Walmart has denied the Justice Department's allegations, saying they amount to blaming pharmacists for "not second-guessing the very doctors the Drug Enforcement Administration approved to prescribe opioids."
When asked if Arkansas will be filing suit against other pharmacies, Rutledge said: "We are not taking anything off the table," citing a 2019 lawsuit against opioid distributors Cardinal Health, the McKesson Corp. and the AmerisourceBergen Drug Corp. as a precedent "under that same legal" theory as the one against Walgreens.
"If other pharmacies and large pharmaceutical chains have done as Walgreens has and not appropriately and legally disclosed, or raised the suspicious orders, then we are going to take legal action against them as well," Rutledge said.
A NUMBER OF SUITS
The lawsuit against Walgreens is the latest suit the state has filed against companies in the opioid epidemic.
Arkansas, along with most states, has filed numerous lawsuits against opioid manufactures and distributors, accusing them of recklessly pushing addictive painkillers that fueled a crisis in the state.
In February, Arkansas received a $5.4 million settlement from consulting firm McKinsey & Co., as part of a 48-state settlement. Government attorneys had alleged McKinsey helped "turbocharge" sales for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.
In 2018, Rutledge filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, but it has been put on hold as the company goes through bankruptcy proceedings. The state also has ongoing litigation against opioid manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and Endo Pharmaceuticals.
The Association of Arkansas Counties and Arkansas Municipal League filed their own lawsuits against Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson and Endo Pharmaceuticals in 2018, but they began working on a coordinated effort with Rutledge's office last year after clashing over competing claims.
The opioid epidemic has hit Arkansas particularly hard as the state is still struggling in the wake of the crisis.
In 2019, Arkansas was the second-highest opioid dispensing state in the nation, behind Alabama, with 80.9 opioid prescriptions per 100 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national average for opioid prescriptions is 46.7 per 100, according to the CDC.