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Walgreens Opioid Epidemic MDL Overview:
- Who: A judge overseeing a bellwether opioid trial surrounding claims against Walgreens heard recorded testimony from Eric Stahmann, a corporate manager for the company.
- Why: Stahmann reportedly told the judge that Walgreens directed its corporate and field leadership teams not to share the prescription habits of doctors with store pharmacists.
- Where: The bellwether trial is in regard to the opioid epidemic in San Francisco.
A judge overseeing a bellwether trial surrounding claims Walgreens and others helped fuel an opioid epidemic in San Francisco heard testimony that the pharmacy store chain tracked but did not share the prescription habits of doctors.
Walgreens reportedly did not make the prescription habits, which it kept in a database, available to its stores because it was worried that it could “cloud the judgment” of pharmacists filling prescriptions, Law360 reports.
A corporate manager for Walgreens’ “pharmaceutical integrity team,” who said the data the company has on record is only for prescriptions filled at their distinct locations, made the recorded testimony.
Walgreens’ pharmaceutical integrity team was created in 2013 as part of an agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that was made to resolve claims revolving around violations involving recordkeeping and dispensing, Law360 reports.
Walgreens Acknowledges Withholding Doctor Prescription Habits
The Walgreens corporate manager, Eric Stahmann, reportedly answered affirmatively when asked if the company directed its corporate and field leadership teams not to report the statistics about the prescription habits of doctors to pharmacists.
Information contained in Walgreens’ corporate database but withheld from store pharmacists included the amount of prescriptions filled in a store by a specific subscriber, the percentage of prescriptions that were of a controlled substance from a subscriber and a ranking of specific subscribers for particular drugs, Law360 reports.
Stahmann reportedly said the worry was that if a pharmacist was given too much information in regard to a subscriber that it could either be misinterpreted and/or make the pharmacist feel unnecessarily uncomfortable about filling the subscription.
Walgreens, Stahmann reportedly said, utilizes a “good faith dispensing policy,” which allows a pharmacist to contact a doctor if they feel the need to double check the reasons for the prescription being given prior to filling it, Law360 reports.
“Our direction to pharmacists was to make a decision based on that particular prescription and not based on history or prescribing data or anything else,” Law360 reports Stahmann said. “They were supposed to look at each individual prescription on a case-by-case basis.”
Last month, CVS Health agreed to pay $484 million to resolve claims related to its sale of prescription opioids at its Florida pharmacies.
In March, meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson reached a $26 billion settlement agreement made to end allegations it helped fuel an opioid epidemic in the US.
Have you been affected by the opioid crisis? Let us know in the comments!
San Francisco is represented by its city attorney’s office, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, Andrus Anderson LLP, Weitz & Luxenberg PC, Simmons Hanly Conroy LLC and Levin Papantonio Rafferty.
The San Francisco Opioid Epidemic Lawsuit is City and County of San Francisco, et al., v. Purdue Pharma LP, et al., Case No. 4:21-cv-06770, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The Walgreens Opioid Epidemic MDL is In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, Case No. 1:17-md-02804, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.
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10 thoughts onWalgreens Kept Doctor’s Prescription Data From Store Pharmacists, Manager Testifies in Opioid Bellwether
This story is about a lawsuit from San Francisco and county. Where they are claiming that Walgreens is liable for the opioid problems, JUST IN SAN FRANCISCO. There is no adding to the City/County suing Walgreens. If you comment “Add me” to this thread, it will not do anything. The question asked if you “Were you affected by the opioid crisis?”. If there is a lawsuit that you can join, you would click a link and fill out information. So, to everyone, everytime that writes “Add Me” in the comments, you will not be added. You have to fill out your personal information, usually on a linked site.
Add me please. Definitely affected
Add me
I used Metformin for over Ten (10) Years. Please add me to the law suit.
Been on pain meds everyday for over 10years
Yes, I have been affected!
I have several chronic pain illnesses. I used to be able to get a small prescription (a couple of pills) of opioids for when I would be doing physical activity such as painting the walls of my house or full scale yard work.
I would take a half a pill to get through the activity and another half for afterwards. I wouldn’t need them, or take them, except when doing strenuous work.
Now that I can’t get opioids anymore I haven’t been able to finish painting my walls and my yard looks terrible! I have a hard time walking, let alone do yard work, due to pain.
I want my life back!
I’ve had friends that committed suicide due to their intense pain when their opioids were taken away! Those people that take pain pills away from people, and reduce their lives to nothing, should be consided murderers!!!
Add me
Add me
Please add
Add me please