EDITORIAL: Former CEO Offended by Ad Must Be Livid at Jury Hitting CVS for Role in Opioid Crisis

EDITORIAL: Former CEO Offended by Ad Must Be Livid at Jury Hitting CVS for Role in Opioid Crisis

Former CVS CEO Tom Ryan is apparently offended that he and other executives like Helena Foulkes are getting called out for their role in the opioid crisis.

It is a crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, by a failed healthcare industry that sold billions of highly addictive drugs to people that often did not need them and made billions in profits.

In 2021, a federal court jury found CVS and two other mega pharmacy giants, Walgreens and Walmart, responsible for their role in the opioid crisis.

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As a result of the jury’s decision, in August, Federal Judge Dan A. Polster of Northern Ohio ordered the three companies to pay $650.5 million to two Ohio counties, ruling that the companies must be held accountable for their part in fueling the opioid epidemic.

CVS is facing lawsuits across the country. In 2021, Attorney General of Kentucky Daniel Cameron filed suit against CVS and so on and so on. CVS settled with Florida.

“During the height of the opioid epidemic, CVS allowed millions of dosage units of opioids to flood Kentucky’s borders, fueling the crisis and devastating thousands of families and communities across the Commonwealth,” said Cameron.  “As both distributor and pharmacy, CVS was in a unique position to monitor and stop the peddling of these highly-addictive drugs from their stores, yet they ignored their own safeguard systems. By bringing this lawsuit on behalf of the people of Kentucky, we are holding CVS accountable for these decisions and for contributing to a man-made crisis that tragically led to the loss of life of thousands of Kentuckians.”

CVS Health agreed to pay the state of Florida $484 million to settle claims related to opioid prescriptions at its pharmacies.

The settlement will resolve claims dating back more than a decade, according to the announcement from CVS. The settlement amount will be paid over the course of 18 years.

New Hampshire has also filed suit. Attorney General John Formella said, "For decades now, these companies have watched pain pills that they are distributing and dispensing cause extreme harm and deaths. During the height of the opioid epidemic, these pharmacies allowed millions of dosage units of opioids to flood New Hampshire, devastating thousands of families and communities across the Granite State."

"As both drug distributors and the operators of chain pharmacy locations, these companies were in a unique position to more closely monitor the flow of these highly addictive drugs from their stores. By bringing this lawsuit, we are attempting to hold them accountable for contributing to a crisis they helped create and that tragically led to the loss of life for thousands of people throughout New Hampshire," he continued. 

Tom Ryan, the former CVS CEO — who now resides in Florida and oversaw the company’s policies for a portion of this period of the opioid crisis -- is now complaining in Rhode Island media that his former company is being “slandered” by an ad by Governor Dan McKee. Ryan has decided to insert himself into the campaign in the final days.

He told WPRI on Saturday, “I have been around Rhode Island politics a long time so not much surprises me, However, a sitting governor publicly attacking and slandering the largest company in Rhode Island and one of the most philanthropic corporations in the country, in an attempt to win an election, is unconscionable.”

Now out-of-stater Ryan has been around Rhode Island politics for a long time. He was one of the owners of the PawSox who demanded tens of millions of dollars in public subsidies, and then when they did not get the deal they wanted, they loaded up the moving truck and took their bat and ball to Worcester.

The reality is that Attorneys General across the country are suing CVS for its role in one of America’s most gruesome health crises.

Foulkes is one of the smartest executives around, and her claims that she and CVS “missed the signs” of the epidemic for nearly a decade are not plausible.

Ryan may feel bad about CVS being tied to the opioid crisis, but at least one jury and many Attorney Generals around the country believe the corporation had a role in the opioid crisis.

It looks to a lot of people they picked profits.