Justice Department Sues Pharmacy Chain Rite Aid, Its Subsidiaries For Contributing To US Opioid Crisis

The United States government has filed a lawsuit against Rite Aid Corp and its subsidiaries, alleging the pharmacy chain knowingly filled hundreds of thousands of unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances from May 2014 to June 2019.

Rite Aid is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the country with 2,244 stores operating in 17 states.

The Department of Justice's associate attorney general, Vanita Gupta, alleged the pharmacy chain ignored "obvious red flags" and instead of taking action against suspicious prescribers, Rite Aid deleted internal notes.

"These practices opened the floodgates for millions of opioid pills and other controlled substances to flow illegally out of Rite Aid's stores," Gupta said in a press release Monday.

Rite Aid allegedly filled prescriptions for "powerful opioid painkillers, such as oxycodone, fentanyl, and other highly diverted controlled substances that were unlawful and medically unnecessary." The department said these practices were a violation of the chain's legal obligations and contributed to the country's opioid crisis. The complaint alleged Rite Aid stores made millions of dollars through these practices.

Opioids are commonly used as painkillers and include medicines such as morphine, fentanyl and tramadol. Nearly 500,000 people die worldwide due to drug use – 70% of the deaths are related to opioids and 30% from an overdose, according to WHO. The organization noted approximately 115,000 people died of opioid overdose in 2017 and that a 120% increase in deaths from opioid overdose was recorded from 2010 to 2018.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 106,000 people in the U.S. died from a drug-involved overdose in 2021. It included illicit drugs and prescription opioids. Data released in January shows drug overdose deaths involving antidepressants in combination with synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, grew 7.5-fold from 2015 to 2021.

"Rite Aid knew of its obligations under federal and state law to prevent the diversion of controlled substances and to refrain from filling unlawful prescriptions," the complaint read. The prescriptions were filled by the pharmacists, regardless of their legal obligation to not do so, the DOJ alleged.

Rite Aid pharmacists were accused of of ignoring suspicious prescriptions, including the ones for "trinities" – a combination of opioids, benzodiazepine, and muscle relaxants. The DOJ highlighted how the pharmacists refilled prescriptions for fentanyl and oxycodone even before a prior prescription had run out, which was a clear sign of overutilization.

"The Justice Department is using every tool at our disposal to confront the opioid epidemic that is killing Americans and shattering communities across the country. That includes holding corporations, like Rite Aid, accountable for knowingly filling unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances," Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

The DOJ demanded compensation, saying Rite Aid presented false or fraudulent reimbursement claims for dispensing prescription drugs that weren't medically necessary.

A whistleblower lawsuit was filed in 2019 by former Rite Aid employees Andrew White, Mark Rosenberg and Ann Wegelin, accusing the chain of dispensing opioids without valid prescriptions.

The DOJ filed a similar suit against drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. and its subsidiaries last year for Controlled Substances Act Violations.

"AmerisourceBergen, one of the largest wholesale distributors of opioids in the world, had a legal obligation to report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and our complaint alleges that the company's repeated and systemic failure to fulfill this simple obligation helped ignite an opioid epidemic that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths over the past decade," the complaint alleged.