Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – Tuesday’s federal jury found that CVS Health Corp, Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:) Inc, and Walmart (NYSE;) Inc contributed to the opioid crisis in Ohio. This was the first time the two companies were brought before a federal jury in relation to the U.S. Drug Crisis.

In Cleveland, federal court jurors found that pharmacy chains created a public nuisance by selling addictive pain pills. They also diverted those drugs to the black markets.

Lawyers for plaintiffs confirmed the verdict. Jurors only assessed liability. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster will decide the amount of liability the companies must pay to address the public nuisance in Ohio’s Lake or Trumbull counties.

A trial has been tentatively set for May 9 to address this question. According to the lawyers for both counties, each county could face $1 billion in costs.

This trial represented the first time that pharmacies were confronted with an epidemic of opioid overdose deaths that U.S. officials claim has resulted, by 2019, in almost 500,000 overdose deaths.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that over 100,000 people were killed by drug overdoses in the 12 months ending April 2021. This record was largely due to opioids such as fentanyl.[L1N2S81LI]

At trial, Lake and Trumbull county lawyers argued that pharmacists had failed to verify opioid prescriptions and let excessive numbers of addictive pain pill flood their communities.

The allegations against the pharmacies, which are some of the biggest in America, were refuted by them. They claimed they had taken steps to prevent the diversion of drugs and blamed other people, such as regulators, doctors and drug traffickers for this epidemic.

After recent setbacks, the Ohio jury ruled in favor of plaintiffs who were pursuing other 3300 cases against national drug distributors and manufacturers.

Oklahoma’s top court on Nov. 9 overturned a $465 million judgment https://www.reuters.com/business/oklahoma-court-overturns-465-million-opioid-award-against-johnson-johnson-2021-11-09 against drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:), and a California judge this month ruled in favor of four drugmakers in a case brought by several large counties.

New York is also witnessing other trials involving Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. AbbVie Inc (NYSE:) and Washington, with three of the largest U.S. drug distribution companies.