New York CNN –
New Mexico has reached a $500 million settlement agreement with Walgreens over the drug giant’s role in the opioid epidemic, state attorneys said Friday.
Plaintiffs argued that Walgreens “distributed millions of potentially harmful opioids to communities across New Mexico” by not red-flagging prescriptions that were not required for medical use or by continuing to fill red-flag prescriptions.
Last fall, the state received an additional $274 million in settlements from Albertsons, CVS, Kroger and Walmart, attorneys said. Including the Walgreens settlement, the total amount brought in by opioid litigation in the state is $1 billion.
“No amount of money will bring back the lives lost and devastated by overprescribing prescription opioids,” said New Mexico Attorney Luis Robles. “With the Walgreens agreement and others, the state of New Mexico can step up its efforts to address the devastating effects of the opioid crisis on our state.”
Walgreens must pay under the settlement agreement to help eliminate opioid addiction in the state.
Nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid, CDC data showed, and between 1999 and 2020 more than 564,000 people died from opioid-related overdoses, including prescription and illicit opioids.
The settlement, which preceded five years of legal wrangling, was reached in March but its confidentiality clause was waived on Friday. Walgreens said it would not comment on the matter.
“This settlement is an important step in our effort to hold companies like Walgreens accountable for their egregious behavior,” co-lead counsel Dan Albertstone said in a statement.
In May, Walgreens and San Francisco reached a $230 million settlement over the opioid crisis. That same month, Kroger also said it would pay $68 million to settle a lawsuit in West Virginia alleging the company had contributed to the state’s opioid glut.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the value of the settlement was incorrect. It was $500 million.