The Justice Division unsealed a civil grievance Wednesday alleging CVS Pharmacy Inc. and varied subsidiaries crammed “illegal” prescriptions in violation of the federal Managed Substances Act.
The grievance additionally says CVS sought reimbursement from federal well being care packages for such prescriptions in violation of the False Claims Act. CVS is the most important pharmacy chain within the U.S., the place there are greater than 9,000 pharmacies.
A consultant of CVS mentioned the corporate has cooperated with the DOJ’s investigation for greater than 4 years, and strongly disagrees with the allegations and what it referred to as the “false narrative” throughout the grievance.
Among the many illegal prescriptions that CVS allegedly crammed from Oct. 17, 2013, to the current had been for harmful and extreme portions of opioids, early fills of opioids, and “trinity” prescriptions — a harmful mixture of medication made up of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant, in keeping with prosecutors.
CVS additionally allegedly crammed massive portions of prescriptions for managed substances written by prescribers it knew to be engaged in “capsule mill practices” — that’s, prescribers who concern massive numbers of managed substance prescriptions with none medical objective, investigators mentioned.
In line with the grievance, CVS ignored substantial proof from a number of sources, together with its personal pharmacists and inside knowledge, indicating that its shops had been shelling out such prescriptions.
“This lawsuit alleges that CVS didn’t train its crucial position as gatekeeper of harmful prescription opioids and, as a substitute, facilitated the unlawful proliferation of those extremely addictive medicine, together with by capsule mill prescribers,” U.S. Legal professional Zachary Cunha for the District of Rhode Island mentioned in a press launch.
If CVS is discovered liable, it might face civil penalties for every illegal prescription crammed and treble damages and different penalties for every prescription reimbursed by federal well being care packages.
The corporate mentioned it’s cooperated with investigators.
“We are going to defend ourselves vigorously in opposition to this misguided federal lawsuit, which follows on the heels of years of litigation over these points by state and native governments — claims that have already got been largely resolved by a worldwide settlement with the collaborating state Attorneys Basic,” mentioned Amy Thibault, director of exterior communications for CVS in a written assertion.
Every of the prescriptions in query was for an FDA-approved opioid medicine prescribed by a practitioner who the federal government itself licensed, approved and empowered to put in writing controlled-substance prescriptions, Thibault added.
The submitting of the grievance follows the announcement on Friday that the McKinsey & Firm consulting agency has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work to assist opioids producer Purdue Pharma enhance the gross sales of the extremely addictive drug OxyContin.
It’s the newest effort by federal prosecutors to carry firms accountable that officers say helped gasoline the U.S. dependancy and overdose disaster, with opioids linked to greater than 80,000 annual deaths in some current years. For the previous decade, most of those deaths have principally been attributed to illicit fentanyl, which is laced into many unlawful medicine. Earlier within the epidemic, prescription drugs had been the first explanation for dying.
Over the previous eight years, drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to about $50 billion value of settlements with governments — with many of the cash required for use to struggle the disaster.
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