Three of America’s largest chemist chains have been found guilty of oversupplying addictive opioid painkillers that saw many of the excess drugs end up on the black market.
Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT), CVS Health Corporation and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) fuelled an opioid crisis in two Ohio counties, the jurors on a Cleveland federal court concluded.
The counties of Lake and Trumbull in Ohio will each receive over US$1bn from the pharmacy chains to address the burden the epidemic has had on surrounding areas.
Dan Polster, the US district judge, will have the final say regarding the amount each company owes to the counties, with the amounts to be finalised in a court trial expected to take place in April or May next year.
"You can be sure the message from this jury is going to be talked about in the boardrooms of every corporation involved in the pharmaceutical chain that's involved in this litigation," said Joe Rice, a lead lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The three companies have all announced that they intend to appeal the verdict arguing it ran contrary to the facts, according to Reuters.
"We will appeal this flawed verdict, which is a reflection of a trial that was engineered to favour the plaintiffs' attorneys and was riddled with remarkable legal and factual mistakes," Walmart said.
Over 100,000 US citizens died from drug overdoses in the year ended April 2021 – a record largely driven by opioid-related deaths including fentanyl and heroin, according to a report published by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.