CVS, WALGREENS CLOSE TO $1O BILLION DEAL ON ROLE IN OPIOID CRISIS

Two of the largest pharmacies in the U.S. are nearing a deal to settle thousands of lawsuits tied to the nation’s opioid crisis. 

The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the country’s opioid crisis. See “NEW YORK LAWSUIT RULES AGAINST BIG OPIOID MANUFACTURER,” “BIG PHARMA DRUG DEALER PLEADS GUILTY” and “FDA AND BIG PHARMA: REVOLVING DOOR KEEPS SPINNING.”)  

The Wall Street Journal reported that under the deal, CVS would pay $4.9 billion to states and municipalities and $130 million to tribes. The payout would run for 10 years and begin next year. Walgreens said it offered to pay up to $4.79 billion to states over a 15-year span and $155 million to tribes. 

Both companies said any payout is not an admission of guilt. Last February, Johnson & Johnson, McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc., and AmerisourceBergen Corp agreed to a $26 billion settlement.

Bloomberg reported last week that Walmart also agreed to pay around $3 billion to resolve these suits. 

Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and members of the Sackler family, the owners of the company, announced that they’ve also reached a settlement in March that would involve up to $6 billion in cash, plus the value of the company, which would be turned into a new entity with its profits used to combat the epidemic. That plan has been put on hold by a court.

“This settlement framework will allow us to keep our focus on the health and well-being of our customers and patients, while making positive contributions to address the opioid crisis,” Walgreens said. 

CVS Health’s stocks went up about 4 percent on Wednesday, after the announcement and Walgreens also saw a 2 percent jump. 

There were more than 3,000 lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and pharmacies. The allegation is that these companies failed to inform customers about the risk of these drugs. 

There have been more than 500,000 overdose threats in the U.S. in the last 20 years. CNN noted that 9.5 million Americans age 12 and older reported in 2020 to have misused opioids.

Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York State comptroller, announced last week that drug overdose fatalities surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The surge is largely due to a sharp increase in deaths from opioids related to illicit fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids. Overdose deaths statewide from opioids and all drugs (5,841) in 2021 surpassed the previous 2017 peak by more than 1,700 fatalities, a statement read.

In 2021, 30 New Yorkers per 100,000 died from drug overdoses and 25 per 100,000 New Yorkers died from opioid overdoses, compared to five in 2010. New York’s opioid overdose death rates exceeded national rates in both 2020 and 2021, the statement read.

TRENDPOST: As we noted in “THE OPIOID WARS” (22 Oct 2019), it all started when OxyContin (a timed-release version of the opioid analgesic oxycodone) was approved by the FDA under Bill Clinton in 1996, and within two years prescriptions increased by 11 million. 

A little history: Purdue Pharma promoted and marketed OxyContin via a sophisticated program that included all-expenses-paid conferences in California, Arizona and Florida for some 5000 doctors, nurses and pharmacists, as well as profiling to identify the most frequent (and sometimes least discriminate) prescribers of opioids; it also paid out $40 million in bonuses for increasing OxyContin sales. And it produced a promotional video in which a doctor claimed the drug “had no serious medical side effects.”

The result was widespread dependency, far beyond medical necessity, among Americans who would otherwise not be using illicit drugs, and who, when access to prescription opioids was tightened by the government, found themselves turning to heroin and bootleg opioids.

TRENDPOST: In America, the country that attacks nations across the planet in the name of bringing “freedom and democracy,” it does not exist when it comes to crimes committed by the Bigs. 

If you got caught selling pot—which is now becoming legal in many states so governments can get tax money from the sales—three strikes you’re out… with harsh jail sentences. And for other drug deal offenses, possibly life in jail. 

But no one from the CVS/Walgreens drug cartel does any time in jail. 

Same with the JP Morgan and other bankster bandits who are convicted of felonies and none on the top go to jail, instead it is punishment to the fullest for minor offenses committed by the plantation workers of Slavelandia.