West Virginia reaches $83 million opioid settlement with Walgreens

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) - West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced on Wednesday that the state reached an $83 million opioid settlement with Walgreens. The settlement with Walgreens is part of a lawsuit with other pharmacies alleging that they contributed to over supplying opioids in the state.

West Virginia has previous settlements with Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid. Walmart agreed to a settlement worth over $65 million. CVS settled for $82.5 million. Last August, Rite Aid settled for up to $30 million to resolve the litigation. The last remaining defendant in the lawsuit is Kroger.

“We’re going to get to a point where as we keep pushing for trial, we think that’s important. We’re not afraid of trial as we’ve demonstrated. So I’m open minded to meet with anyone in terms of resolving the issue. I think we’re very far along in the process,” said Morrisey.

The money from all opioid settlements will be distributed under the terms of the West Virginia First Memorandum of Understanding. Announced last year, the MOU is an agreement with the state and local governments on how future settlement dollars would be used to abate the opioid crisis throughout the state.

It contains a comprehensive plan to use those funds to abate the massive problems caused by the flood of opioids into West Virginia.

The $83 million will be paid over an eight year period according to Morrisey.

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