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Opioid crisis: Walmart sues US government - to forestall it

2020-10-23T00:24:58.009Z


Walmart also operates pharmacy counters in its supermarkets - is the company complicit if opiates are sold there? A legal dispute flares up over this question, the first lawsuit has been filed.


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Washington, DC Walmart: A Retrospective Penalty For Opiate Sales?

Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

The opioid crisis in the USA kills thousands every year, most recently numerous manufacturers of addictive pain relievers came into focus.

But what about companies that distribute the drugs to the population?

The largest US retailer Walmart has now sued the American government to arm itself against threatening legal consequences because of its role in the crisis.

The Justice Department is threatening Walmart with a "completely unjustified" legal battle, the company announced on Thursday evening (local time) in Bentonville.

Walmart could be retrospectively fined for selling addictive pain relievers and thus contributing to the devastating opioid epidemic in the United States.

However, Walmart argues that employees were only doing their duty by offering drugs that were prescribed to customers by doctors approved by the US authorities.

"We are starting this legal battle because there is no federal law that requires pharmacists to interfere in the relationship between doctors and patients to the extent required by the Justice Department."

Walmart is now ahead of a possible lawsuit by the US government to clarify whether drug dealers can be held responsible.

In fact, government experts and health officials always emphasize that it is forbidden to deny patients medical claims.

There were initially no statements from the Ministry of Justice or the DEA anti-drug authority, against which the corporation's lawsuit is also directed.

Manufacturers face billions in claims

Opioids are partly synthetically produced drugs with, among other things, pain-relieving properties.

However, they also harbor an enormous risk of dependency and a high potential for abuse.

The opioid epidemic in the US has resulted in more than 450,000 deaths since the turn of the millennium, according to the CDC.

Walmart is not one of the pharmaceutical companies that is often blamed for the misery, but as a large drug dealer with many pharmacy counters, it has also long been criticized.

Last of Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma had a Milliardenvergleic on Wednesday

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jok / dpa

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2020-10-23

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