Federal prosecutors have accused CVS Pharmacy of ignoring crimson flags within the opioid disaster, prioritizing income over security and repeatedly filling illegal prescriptions.
The allegations have struck a private chord for Elise Reynolds, a Rhode Island mom who misplaced two sons to opioid habit.
“I miss him each day,” Reynolds mentioned, reflecting on her son Paul, who died 20 years in the past.
Six years later, her different son, Teddy, succumbed to the identical battle.
“I do know that he was preventing a battle that he simply would by no means win,” she mentioned.
Reynolds believes companies like CVS performed a major function in fueling the epidemic, a sentiment echoed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha introduced Wednesday that CVS repeatedly ignored warning indicators and stuffed prescriptions from medical doctors identified to be chargeable for overdoses.
“If you go into the pharmacy with a prescription that claims give me 50 tablets of smack, the pharmacist has a authorized obligation to not fill that prescription,” Cunha mentioned, emphasizing that the difficulty was not a mere oversight however systemic negligence. “They did so within the face of medical doctors who have been identified to be chargeable for overdoses,” he added.
CVS has denied the claims, calling the lawsuit misguided and defending its efforts to handle the epidemic.
Helena Foulkes, a former CVS President, can also be dealing with criticism as she considers one other run for Rhode Island governor.
In an announcement to NBC 10, Foulkes mentioned the corporate lowered opioid prescriptions by 45% throughout her tenure, the identical interval prosecutors allege the corporate violated the regulation.
Cunha acknowledged, “A ample variety of people on the ample degree of accountability inside the company have been conscious such that we alleged the company is liable.”
Reynolds believes that holding companies accountable is barely a part of the answer.
“I want that they’d be capable of assist them to seek out no matter they should do to get better, to recover from this habit… Because it isn’t simple,” she mentioned.
