Walgreens handled about 20 percent of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills in U.S. pharmacies during the height of the opioid crisis, according to The Washington Post.
The pharmacy chain bought about 13 billion opioid pills between 2006 and 2012, which is 3 billion more than its closest rival, CVS Health, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration database of opioid shipments cited by The Washington Post.
A 2013 email from Walgreens' manager of pharmaceutical integrity, Edward Bratton, wrote that the company continued to sell opioid pills to stores "without limit or review." The email is one of thousands of documents recently disclosed in the federal opioid trial.
Most chain and independent pharmacies relied on wholesalers to provide prescription opioids, but Walgreens got 97 percent of its opioid pills directly from drugmakers, according to The Washington Post. The arrangement allowed Walgreens to have more control over how many pills it sent to its stores. It also gave Walgreens the responsibility to alert the DEA to suspicious orders by its own pharmacies and to stop those shipments.
As part of the federal opioid trial, Walgreens has been accused of failing to report suspicious orders and of incentivizing pharmacists with bonuses to fill more opioid prescriptions.
Walgreens will go to trial in 2020 because it was postponed, according to The Washington Post.
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