This health crisis, which is the source of more than 500,000 dead in twenty years, has led to numerous proceedings against manufacturers and distributors. By paying, they solve disputes, but without recognizing their responsibility.
Le Monde with AP and AFP
American CVS and Walgreens pharmacies channels have announced that they agree to pay $ 5 billion each in response to the proceedings related to the opiate crisis.
“We are committed to working with states, municipalities and tribes, and will continue our own important initiatives to help reduce the illegitimate use of prescription opiates,” said Thomas Moriarty, Director of Director CVS policies and lawyer general, saying that they are “happy to resolve these long-standing complaints”.
CVS, which however specified that this proposal of agreement was not an admission of guilt on its part, undertook to pay $ 4.9 billion to local authorities and $ 130 million to Native American tribes , particularly affected, over ten years. For its part, Walgreens intends to spread over fifteen years the payment of $ 4.8 billion to communities and $ 155 million to the Amerindian tribes. The Walmart mass distribution giant also said that it would pay $ 3 billion to end the proceedings launched by many municipalities, reveals Bloomberg.
The three groups had already been ordered to pay $ 650 billion to Ohio counties. The agreement proposed by the pharmacy chains would be the first of its kind, and it could be the largest payment concluded after years of dispute around the role of the pharmaceutical industry in the overdoses epidemic linked to opioida .
more than 500,000 dead in twenty years
Several manufacturers and distributors of medication have already accepted agreements in principle to settle the proceedings. In July, the Israeli Laboratory TEVA announced an agreement in principle to more than $ 4 billion with complainants. In early March, Purdue concluded with several American states an agreement proposing to pay up to $ 6 billion.
In recent years, deaths linked to opiates have multiplied, the majority involving clandestine derivatives of fentanyl, a powerful analgesic normally prescribed for intense pain.
At the origin of more than 500,000 dead by overdose in twenty years in the United States, the opiate crisis has given rise to a myriad of procedures. In this case, manufacturers of painkillers are accused of having made dependent many of those who consumed it. Most of the deaths were primarily linked to prescribed prescription drugs. However, when governments, doctors and companies in the pharmaceutical industry hardened the criteria for obtaining these treatments, people with opioid addiction turned to heroin, a more lethal drug.