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CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, the three largest drugstore chains in the US, negotiated on Wednesday to drop all lawsuits against them related to the opioid crisis: they will pay around $13.8 billion in damages , at the moment the two currencies have practically the same value).
Opioids are painkillers that are highly addictive. They began to be synthesized in the early twentieth century, but their widespread use dates back to the 1990s. At that time, the American pharmaceutical company Purdue started selling oxycodone, marketed as OxyContin, and ran a very aggressive marketing campaign to convince doctors to prescribe it for their patients, claiming that it could be used to treat chronic pain become, without it coming to addiction problems.
Pharma chains have been accused of selling opioids in bulk without carrying out the necessary controls and without warning customers of the risks they face.
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Under Wednesday’s agreement, CVS will pay the thousands of people who have sued the company about $5 billion over the next 10 years and Walgreens will pay $5.7 billion over 15 years. Walmart will pay the compensation immediately, which totals $3.1 billion.
The three companies had already been ordered to pay compensation for their contribution to the opioid health crisis in the United States at the end of August. A federal court in Ohio had ordered her to pay a total of $650.5 million in damages. This ruling was considered extremely important as it was the first given to the three chains, which are accused of contributing to many people’s addiction.