Rite Aid has countersued the Justice Department in a pursuit to halt the government's lawsuit, filed in March, that claims the drugstore chain knowingly filled hundreds of thousands of illegal opioid prescriptions.
Reuters was first to report the news of Rite Aid's countersuit, which the Philadelphia-based company reportedly filed Nov. 16.
Here are five things to know about the drugstore chain's lawsuit and events leading up or related to it:
1. Rite Aid's lawsuit is tied to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which it announced in October. At that time, Rite Aid said that the bankruptcy filing would allow it to "resolve litigation claims in an equitable manner."
2. Lawsuits filed by opioid plaintiffs against Rite Aid were automatically stopped by the company's bankruptcy filing. The DOJ, however, agreed to a "brief pause" of its lawsuit against Rite Aid in light of the bankruptcy filing, and the company contends this position threatens to undermine its restructuring efforts, according to a complaint Rite Aid filed on Nov. 16 in New Jersey bankruptcy court as reported by Reuters.
3. Rite Aid is asking the bankruptcy judge to rule that the DOJ lawsuit cannot proceed with its lawsuit while Rite Aid is bankrupt.
4. The DOJ filed suit against Rite Aid in March, claiming it violated the Controlled Substances Act and alleging that the company filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions that did not meet legal requirements from May 2014 through June 2019.
5. Three pharmacy chains — CVS, Walgreens and Walmart — reached settlement agreements totalling more than $13 billion in 2022 to resolve thousands of opioid mismanagement lawsuits at state and local government levels.