Walmart Inc. (WMT) has agreed to pay $50 million to settle federal allegations that its pharmacies illegally dispensed thousands of invalid opioid prescriptions across the United States.
The U.S. Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration jointly announced the settlement, marking a significant resolution to a long-running legal dispute with the retail giant.
The government’s original complaint was filed on December 22, 2020, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, and was later amended in 2022.
Federal authorities alleged that since June 26, 2013, Walmart filled invalid prescriptions through the knowing actions of individuals on its compliance team and pharmacists.
According to the United States, Walmart’s compliance team was aware that certain prescribers were operating as “pill mills” but continued to fill prescriptions written by those prescribers.
Walmart pharmacists also allegedly filled prescriptions they knew were invalid, ignoring a range of obvious red flags that should have triggered concern.
Those red flags included dangerous combinations of opioids, cocktails of opioids and non-opioids, excessively repeated fills of high-dosage opioids, and repeated requests for early refills of controlled substances often subject to abuse.
The settlement resolves allegations that Walmart violated the Controlled Substances Act, a federal law governing the manufacture, distribution, and dispensing of controlled substances.
Beyond the financial penalty, Walmart has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the DEA designed to strengthen its obligations around dispensing controlled substances going forward.
Under that agreement, Walmart must establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing at any of its pharmacy locations nationwide.
The company is also required to proactively monitor pharmacy dispensing patterns to identify and address potential violations before they escalate into broader compliance failures.
Additionally, Walmart must implement a formal process to evaluate prescribers suspected of engaging in illegal prescribing activity, adding another layer of oversight to its pharmacy operations.
The settlement reflects ongoing federal efforts to hold large pharmacy chains accountable for their role in the opioid crisis that has devastated communities across the country for more than a decade.
WMT closed Friday’s regular trading session at $103.09, up $0.46 or 0.45%, as investors largely shrugged off the settlement announcement.
