The American supermarket group Walmart is to pay 3.1 billion dollars in the United States to end a lawsuit accusing it of having played a role in the opiate crisis in the country.
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As with the CVS and Walgreens pharmacy chains, which agreed in early November to each pay $5 billion in similar agreements, the company is accused of having massively distributed opiate painkillers without being moved by the high number of prescriptions.
“Pharmacies such as Walmart have played an undeniable role in perpetuating the destruction wrought by opiates,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Opioid prescriptions quadrupled between 1999 and 2010 in the United States. Although the trend has reversed since 2016, they have created addictions and pushed some patients to turn to drugs such as heroin and fentanyl.
More than half a million people have died of opiate overdoses in 20 years.
This health crisis has given rise to myriads of procedures, which are gradually being resolved.
The Purdue laboratory, considered by many to be the trigger for the crisis due to the aggressive promotion of its painkiller OxyContin, has thus filed for bankruptcy while drug manufacturers, distributors and more recently pharmacies have agreed to pay several billion.
Walmart points out that the agreement does not include any admission of liability: its employees only filled prescriptions written by licensed doctors, prescribing authorized substances, the company argued.
But the supermarket chain believes that closing the complaints is “in the best interest of all parties”.
In addition to the money paid to fight the harmful effects of opiates, Walmart has pledged to better monitor possible suspicious prescriptions.
The agreement does not cover lawsuits filed at the end of 2020 by the Ministry of Justice, which accuses the group of pressuring its pharmacists to quickly process prescriptions.
Thanksgiving meal
Announced alongside quarterly results, the deal resulted in a heavy charge on the company’s books, leading to a net loss of $1.8 billion for the August-October period.
However, its business held up well and, not taking this exceptional element into account, the supermarket chain posted results that exceeded expectations. Its turnover notably increased by 8.7% to reach 152.8 billion dollars.
“When consumer budgets start to falter, Walmart benefits,” summed up Neil Saunders of GlobalData, pointing out that growth is centered on the food shelves.
“With the cost of everyday items remaining stubbornly high in too many categories, more and more customers are choosing us for our prices and product mix,” company boss Doug McMillon told a conference call. telephone.
In the United States, the group has managed to offer similar prices to last year for the traditional Thanksgiving meal at the end of November.
Encouraged by an influx of customers attracted by the low prices in its stores in this period of inflation, all incomes combined, the group raised its forecast for the year.
Walmart now expects revenue to rise 5.5% for its fiscal year, which ends at the end of January, from 4.5% previously.
At the same time, the company expects its operating profit to fall from 6.5% to 7.5%, which is less than the decline previously forecast.
Walmart had warned this summer that its margins would be eroded this year by inflation, which pushes its customers to spend more on food and gasoline and less on other goods, with generally higher margins.
To deflate inventory, the group canceled orders and offered deep discounts on clothing and other big items. At the end of October, its inventories were only up 13% over one year against +26% at the end of July.
As a sign of its optimism about its business, Walmart also announced a new $20 billion share buyback program on Tuesday.
The action jumped 7% in mid-session on Wall Street.