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The U.S. Department of Justice sued Walmart on Tuesday, accusing the world’s largest retailer of fueling the U.S. opiate crisis, ignoring warning signs from its pharmacists and filling out thousands of invalid prescriptions.
In a civil lawsuit in a U.S. court in Delaware, the government said Walmart did not take seriously its job of maintaining the gates as a pharmacy, which the company denied.
US SUES WALMART APPLIES ROLE IN FEEDING OPIOID CRISIS
Walmart, whose shares closed 1.2% after the news, said in a statement that “the Department of Justice’s investigation is affected by historical ethical violations, and this process invents a legal theory that illegally forces pharmacists to come between patients and their doctors and is full of factual inaccuracies. “
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| ticker | Security | The last one | Change | Change% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | WALMART INC. | 144.20 | -1.77 | -1.21% |
Walmart has created a system that has turned the 5,000 pharmacies in its stores into a highly dependent analgesic supplier, dating back to June 2013, the lawsuit said.
(Fallon / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The trial marked one of the most significant actions the Department of Justice has taken in response to the epidemic targeting companies accused of contributing to it.
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Last month, prosecutors obtained a guilty plea from Purdue Pharma over its opiate sales and previously prosecuted several executives of opioid manufacturer Insys Therapeutics accused of bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive drug.
Insys went bankrupt last year after reaching an agreement with the government in which a subsidiary pleaded guilty to fraud charges.