CVS Health, Walmart Settle West Virginia Opioid Lawsuit, Walgreens To Face Trial Next Year

CVS Health Corp CVS and Walmart Inc WMT will pay $147.5 million to settle lawsuits regarding West Virginia's opioid crisis, with CVS shelling out $82.5 million and Walmart approximately $65 million.
West Virginia was supposed to proceed to trial on September 26 against the two companies and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA.
Walgreens has not settled, and a trial has been rescheduled for June 2023, Reuters reported, with Kroger Co KR also being a defendant in the rescheduled trial.
"We believe that we have a very strong case against Walgreens," Morrisey said at a news conference. "We're going to pursue that quite vigorously."
Walgreens was found liable for fueling opioid addiction in San Francisco. Additionally, Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart were liable for contributing to the opioid crisis in two Ohio counties and were ordered to pay $650 million.
CVS said it would continue to defend itself in other opioid lawsuits but believed that "putting these claims behind us" was the right decision in the West Virginia case.
"Our position remains that opioid prescriptions are written by doctors, not pharmacists and that opioid medications are made and marketed by manufacturers, not pharmacies," CVS spokesman Michael DeAngelis said.
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