The US is suing Walmart over the opioid crisis. What it means for action.

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The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Walmart, alleging that the retail giant played a role in the U.S. opioid crisis. But there are several reasons why stocks can survive demand.

The DOJ alleges a lack of adequate staff at

Walmart

pressure from pharmacies and managers allowed the fulfillment of suspicious orders on a large scale. According to the lawsuit, these decisions, which the DOJ says were motivated by the benefits, led Walmart to dispense these drugs illegally (a violation of the Controlled Substances Act) and therefore played an important role. in the opioid crisis.

For its part, Walmart attacked the agency. He says the lawsuit “invents a legal theory that illegally forces pharmacists to unite between patients and their doctors” and that their pharmacists had in fact refused to fill “hundreds of thousands” of problematic prescriptions.

Walmart’s move and response isn’t too surprising. This fall, Walmart sued the DOJ for more clarity on the role of pharmacies and their employees under the law. Walmart shares also did not react well to the news Wednesday morning, falling 0.2% to $ 143.88 in recent control.

Certainly the news is not welcome by Walmart. The DOJ alleges that the administrators pressured the pharmacists to fulfill the orders quickly, as the company believed that this service would attract buyers and keep them in stores. The lawsuit also says the company did little to help pharmacists raising red flags and in one case filled the prescriptions of a doctor who was under federal investigation and refused to answer questions from pharmacists.

Walmart said it has “always authorized our pharmacists to refuse to fill” prescriptions.

At the same time, it could have been worse. Earlier, the Justice Department had reflected on the criminal charges by Walmart, but decided not to use that route, instead of pursuing a civil lawsuit. Nor is Walmart the only company in sight. Bankruptcy Purdue Pharma, creator of OxyContin, has already pleaded guilty to three federal offenses. Meanwhile, other local governments have already sued Walmart, along with colleagues

CVS Health

(CVS),

Rite

Help (RAD) i

Walgreens Boots Alliance

(WBA), for their alleged roles in the crisis.

Ultimately, unless there are more bombs in demand, it probably won’t cause much inconvenience to Walmart’s stock. Shares have risen more than 21% to date, as the retailer has seen an increase in new buyers throughout the pandemic. Even if Walmart complied with the Justice Department, as Purdue did earlier this year, for a total of $ 8.34 billion, that would equate to just over 6% of third-quarter tax revenue, or ‘1.5% of nearly $ 555 billion in revenue. it is estimated that it will occur this year.

Write to Teresa Rivas to [email protected]