CLEVELAND, Ohio — The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a whistleblower lawsuit that accuses Rite Aid of illegally distributing opioids and helping fuel a prescription painkiller crisis that ravaged communities across the country.
The lawsuit accuses the chain of informally incentivizing and pressuring pharmacists to recklessly fill opioid prescriptions regardless of their validity and even if they were clearly unnecessary or dangerous.
Rite Aid, which has some 2,300 stores in 17 states, did so “in furtherance of its bottom line,” the lawsuit says.
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has reached out to Rite Aid for comment.
The lawsuit was initially filed under seal in federal court in Pennsylvania in 2019 but was moved earlier this year to Cleveland’s court. The Justice Department filed to intervene in the case in November. U.S. District Judge Charles Fleming granted the request and unsealed the case in mid-December.
It’s unknown exactly what the Justice Department is seeking by intervening in the lawsuit. Its lawyers have until mid-March to file a complaint.
The move gives the department standing in the lawsuit to negotiate a possible settlement or present evidence if the case goes to trial. It also gives prosecutors the ability to seek millions of dollars the federal government spent to subsidize dubious prescriptions that Rite Aid should have known to block, according to the lawsuit.
The pharmacists behind the complaint accused the company of recklessly...
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