US Government sues pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens for their alleged role in the opioid epidemic (7 March 2025)

Summary

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued both CVS and Walgreens, along with dozens of their state subsidiaries, for allegedly aiding and abetting the US opioid epidemic. The country’s two largest pharmacy chains collectively operate more than 17,000 stores. The civil lawsuits by the DOJ rest on the allegation that the pharmacy chains violated both the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).

The CSA states that narcotics can only be used for “a useful and legitimate medical purpose.” By filling prescriptions that were invalid, the pharmacies “made choices that caused these millions of violations of federal law,” the DOJ alleged in the Walgreens lawsuit. The FCA states that entities cannot knowingly present a “false or fraudulent claim” for government payment—either due to “deliberate ignorance” or “reckless disregard” of the claim’s falsehood. The DOJ alleged that by requesting reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for illegitimate prescriptions, the pharmacies broke the law. They unlawfully dispensed “massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances to fuel its own profits at the expense of public health and safety,” the lawsuit against CVS stated.