CVS, Walgreens and over a dozen states have finalized a settlement for the drug store chains to pay $10.7 billion to resolve claims that they contributed to the opioid addiction crisis.
Colorado is set to receive more than $150 million of the settlement money, state Attorney General Phil Weiser announced on Monday. Weiser led the negotiations on the settlement framework, along with attorneys general from 17 other states.
“The companies that helped create and fuel the opioid crisis need to step up to fix it," Weiser said. "That means providing significant resources to increase treatment and recovery services and changing their business practices to make sure this never happens again."
Colorado is now slated to receive more than $700 million from national opioid settlements, Weiser said. Just last month, Walmart also agreed to a multi-billion-dollar national opioid settlement co-led by Colorado, with the state receiving over $40 million.
Through August of this year, 462 Coloradans had died from the synthetic opioid fentanyl, according to the state health department. From 2019 to 2021, Colorado had the second-highest increase in fentanyl deaths out of any state, according to a February report from the nonprofit Families Against Fentanyl.
The attorneys general argued that CVS and Walgreens bolstered the national opioid crisis by filling prescriptions they should have flagged as inappropriate.
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Respectively, CVS and Walgreens agreed in November to pay $5 billion over 10 years and $5.7 billion over 15 years to resolve the claims, though the settlement is not an admission of any liability or wrongdoing, the companies said in a statement.
“We are pleased to resolve these longstanding claims and putting them behind us is in the best interest of all parties, as well as our customers, colleagues and shareholders,” said Thomas Moriarty, chief policy officer and general counsel of CVS Health. “We are committed to working with states, municipalities and tribes, and will continue our own important initiatives to help reduce the illegitimate use of prescription opioids.”
In addition to the $10.7 billion, the settlement requires CVS and Walgreens to improve how their pharmacies handle opioids. Weiser said the court-ordered requirements will include monitoring, reporting and sharing data about suspicious activity related to opioid prescriptions.
The leading attorneys general all agreed to the settlement. It must now be reviewed and approved by other states before the end of 2022.
If approved, the $10.7 billion will be divided by states, local governments and tribes that sign on, and must be used to provide treatment and recovery services to people struggling with opioid use disorder. In Colorado, the $150 million will be distributed according to the opioid framework agreed to by the state and local governments in August 2021.
The other states involved in negotiating the settlement include North Carolina, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas.
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