Opioids Prescription Violations Costs CVS Subsidiary $15.3M

Opioids Prescription Violations Costs CVS Subsidiary $15.3M

Introduction

The U.S. Attorney for Colorado, Jason R. Dunn, announced that Omnicare Inc., a subsidiary of CVS Health, has agreed to compensate $15.3 million in penalties to settle allegations of dispensing opioids and other drugs without a valid prescription.

Omnicare owns two pharmacies in Colorado, one in Pueblo and the other in Grand Junction. The company supplied medications daily to the patients of long-term care facilities and also organized the kits for emergency drug dispensations.

The authorities claimed that Omnicare violated the Controlled Substances Act while delivering prescription medications to facilities. The company allowed the employees of the care facilities to remove opioids and other controlled substances from emergency kits before obtaining prescriptions from doctors, and the medications did not contain necessary documentation.

Along with the monetary settlement, the company will also increase its auditing and monitoring of the emergency kits. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Denver field division was also involved in the investigation along with the attorney.

Earlier, West Virginia Attorney General reached a multistate settlement against a pharmaceutical company over allegations of falsely and aggressively marketing and promoting opioids.

According to a news release, Indivior, a global pharmaceutical company, will pay more than $5.2 million to West Virginia. $1.36 million of the settlement amount will be kept by the state and the remaining amount will be paid to the federal Medicaid programs.

The attorney general said that deceptive marketing of the products claiming that it is safe to use can have dangerous outcomes.

From 2010 to 2015, Indivior promoted the sale and use of Suboxone by encouraging physicians to prescribe the drug to users without a medical prescription. The company purposely promoted the opioid sale, even after knowing that it is unsafe for use.

In September 2012, Indivior submitted a petition to federal regulators that stated discontinuation of Suboxone tablet to prevent generic competitors from entering the market. The petition was fraudulent and the agreement even resolves those allegations.

It is only the second settlement of Medicaid fraud allegations in West Virginia. In 2019, the first settlement of $700 million was announced against Reckitt Benckiser Group.