West Virginia reaches ~$147M settlement with CVS, Walmart over opioid crisis claims


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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Tuesday announced a $147.57M settlement with pharmacy operators CVS (NYSE:CVS) and Walmart (NYSE:WMT) over their alleged roles in contributing to the state’s opioid crisis.

WMT and CVS agreed to a settlement of $65.07M and $82.5M, respectively.

The settlements resolve investigations that alleged that CVS and WMT did not effectively maintain controls “as a distributor and dispenser against diversion that contributed to oversupply of opioids in the state,” Morrisey’s office said in a statement.

“These settlements won’t bring back the lives lost from the opioid epidemic, but these and other settlements will hopefully provide significant help to those affected the most by this crisis in our state,” Morrisey said.

The settlements with WMT and CVS follow a similar $30M agreement with pharmacy operator Rite Aid (RAD) in Aug.

WMT and CVS are part of a larger trial involving other major pharmacy operators, with a trial date set for June 5, 2023 against the remaining defendants – Walgreens (WBA) and Kroger (KR).

WMT stock earlier closed -0.6% at $133.55 while CVS ended -0.8% at $101.34.


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