Walmart to appeal in opioid litigation
Walmart Inc. said Friday it will appeal the dismissal of the company’s lawsuit against the federal government seeking clarity on the obligations of pharmacies and pharmacists in handling opioid prescriptions.
Walmart said in the suit filed Oct. 22 against the U.S. Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration that it sought to resolve inconsistencies in the agencies’ rules and their enforcement under the Controlled Substances Act.
The Bentonville-based retailer filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Federal Judge Sean D. Jordan said in his ruling issued Thursday that the defendants had not waived “sovereign immunity” in the case. Sovereign immunity means the government cannot be sued without its consent, according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.
The company, which has
Walmart’s suit was filed preemptively in response to the Department of Justice’s threat to sue the retailer for “continuing to fill opioid prescriptions of certain licensed doctors — many of whom are still authorized by DEA to prescribe opioids to this day,” the retailer said in court documents.
more than 5,000 pharmacies in stores and clubs nationwide, said Friday that the judge’s decision “is purely procedural, based on when the federal government can be sued, and does not resolve the public health concerns raised on our case.”
“We brought this lawsuit because Walmart and our pharmacists are torn between DEA on one side and federal health agencies and state regulators on the other, and patients are caught in the middle,” Walmart said.
“Our patients deserve better than the current patchwork of inconsistent, conflicting and contradictory demands from federal and state regulators,” the company said.
Walmart’s suit was filed preemptively in response to the Department of Justice’s threat to sue the retailer for “continuing to fill opioid prescriptions of certain licensed doctors — many of whom are still authorized by DEA to prescribe opioids to this day,” the retailer said in court documents.
“When a patient presents a pharmacist with an opioid prescription written by a doctor who is licensed by a state medical board and credentialed by DEA to prescribe controlled substances, the pharmacist must make a difficult decision,” according to Walmart’s complaint.
“The pharmacist can accept the doctor’s medical judgment and fill the opioid prescription, or secondguess the doctor’s judgment and refuse to fill it — a decision the pharmacist must make without the benefit of a medical license, examining the patient, or having access to medical records,” the company said in court records.
The Justice Department sued Walmart on Dec. 22 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. That suit claims Walmart filled large numbers of invalid opioid prescriptions through its pharmacies, along with other violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
The government’s lawsuit is pending.
On Dec. 11, the American Pharmacists Association gave Walmart its H.A.B. Dunning Award in recognition of “the company’s exemplary contribution to the practice of pharmacy.”
“Walmart is recognized in part for its efforts to train its more than 18,000 pharmacists on substance use disorders, and pain and safe opioid management,” the association said on its website. “Walmart additionally has supported a free comprehensive opioid training program for all U.S. pharmacists and pharmacy technicians nationwide.”
Walmart’s lawsuit is Walmart Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice et al.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit is United States of America v. Walmart Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores East, LP.