The Justice Department unsealed a civil grievance Wednesday alleging CVS Pharmacy Inc. and numerous subsidiaries crammed “illegal” prescriptions in violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
The grievance additionally says CVS sought reimbursement from federal well being care applications 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 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 medicine made up of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant, in accordance with prosecutors.
CVS additionally allegedly crammed giant portions of prescriptions for managed substances written by prescribers it knew to be engaged in “capsule mill practices” — that’s, prescribers who challenge giant numbers of managed substance prescriptions with none medical objective, investigators mentioned.
According to the grievance, CVS ignored substantial proof from a number of sources, together with its personal pharmacists and inner information, indicating that its shops had been meting out such prescriptions.
“This lawsuit alleges that CVS didn’t train its crucial position as gatekeeper of harmful prescription opioids and, as an alternative, facilitated the unlawful proliferation of those extremely addictive medication, together with by capsule mill prescribers,” U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha for the District of Rhode Island mentioned in a press launch.
If CVS is discovered liable, it may face civil penalties for every illegal prescription crammed and treble damages and different penalties for every prescription reimbursed by federal well being care applications.
The firm mentioned it’s cooperated with investigators.
“We will defend ourselves vigorously towards 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 world settlement with the taking part state Attorneys General,” mentioned Amy Thibault, director of exterior communications for CVS in a written assertion.
Each of the prescriptions in query was for an FDA-approved opioid medicine prescribed by a practitioner who the federal government itself licensed, licensed and empowered to jot down controlled-substance prescriptions, Thibault added.
The submitting of the grievance follows the announcement on Friday that the McKinsey & Company 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. habit and overdose disaster, with opioids linked to greater than 80,000 annual deaths in some latest years. For the previous decade, most of those deaths have principally been attributed to illicit fentanyl, which is laced into many unlawful medication. Earlier within the epidemic, prescription tablets had been the first explanation for loss of life.
Over the previous eight years, drugmakers, wholesalers and pharmacies have agreed to about $50 billion price of settlements with governments — with a lot of the cash required for use to struggle the disaster.
