STAT+: Pharmalittle: Judge rules Walgreens helped fuel San Francisco opioid crisis; U.S. plan to bottle monkeypox vaccine could take months
Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, especially since clear blue skies and comforting cool breezes are enveloping the Pharmalot campus. A lovely change from the recent steamy temps. In fact, the official mascot is enjoying the moment by fertilizing our growing collection of weeds. As for us, we are knocking back another cup of stimulation — our choice today is glazed doughnut. After all, the to-do list has not grown any shorter. We trust you can relate. So time to get started. Here are your tidbits, and have a smashing day. …
A U.S. federal judge ruled that Walgreens helped fuel the opioid epidemic in San Francisco by shipping thousands of “suspicious orders” of prescription drugs to its pharmacies, Courthouse News reports. More than 100 million prescription opioid pills were dispensed by Walgreens in the city between 2006 and 2020, and during that time, the pharmacy chain failed to investigate thousands of orders deemed suspicious, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in his 112-page ruling. Walgreens did not sufficiently staff or train its pharmacies to investigate these suspicious orders. Rather, he said pharmacists were under “constant pressure to fill prescriptions as quickly as possible.”
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