BENTONVILLE (dpa-AFX) - Walmart Inc. (WMT) agreed to pay $50 million to settle allegations that its pharmacies illegally filled thousands of invalid prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The settlement was announced by the U.S. Justice Department together with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The government's complaint, originally filed on Dec. 22, 2020, and later amended in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that since June 26, 2013, Walmart filled invalid prescriptions through the knowing actions of individuals on its compliance team and pharmacists. According to the United States, Walmart's compliance team was aware that certain prescribers were operating as 'pill mills' but continued to fill prescriptions written by those prescribers.
Walmart pharmacists also allegedly filled prescriptions they knew were invalid. These prescriptions carried obvious red flags, including dangerous combinations of opioids, 'cocktails' of opioids and non-opioids, excessively repeated fills of high-dosage opioids, and repeated requests for early refills of controlled substances often subject to abuse.
In addition to the settlement, Walmart has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DEA to strengthen its future obligations in dispensing controlled substances. Under this agreement, Walmart must establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing, proactively monitor pharmacy dispensing patterns to identify and address potential violations, and implement a process to evaluate prescribers suspected of illegal prescribing.
WMT closed Friday's regular trading at $103.09 up $0.46 or 0.45%.
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