A federal judge in Cleveland dismissed an attempt by several large retail pharmacy chains, including CVS and Walgreens, to shift blame for the opioid crisis to physicians, Cleveland.com reported.
The pharmacies had filed a lawsuit against hundreds of Ohio physicians claiming they should take responsibility for their part in the opioid epidemic and arguing that pharmacies were simply following directions of physicians when filling opioid prescriptions.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster dismissed the lawsuit March 31, saying the pharmacy chains must defend themselves against claims from two Ohio counties in a trial set to begin in November, according to Cleveland.com.
The judge said the counties' case is not only about whether the pharmacies filled the opioid prescriptions, but whether they had effective systems in place to detect illegitimate prescriptions and if they did their job to prevent drugs from going to someone besides the person they were prescribed to.
"The court finds no basis on which the pharmacies can simply transfer to prescribers their liability to plaintiffs for failing to rely upon (or ignoring) information beyond an individual prescription or prescriber’s representations when dispensing opioids," the judge wrote.
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