CVS Agrees to $3.5 Million Settlement Linked to Fake Prescriptions -- Update

 By Ezequiel Minaya

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts said Thursday that CVS Pharmacy Inc. has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle allegations that 50 of its stores in the state and New Hampshire filled hundreds of fake prescriptions over a three-year period for addictive pain killers and other controlled substances.

Authorities in the U.S. Attorney's office in the District of Massachusetts said the fraudulent prescriptions were filled between 2011 and 2014 for drugs with a total street value of over $1 million. Two investigations by the Drug Enforcement Administration found a total of 523 forged prescriptions involving 50 CVS stores.

Prosecutors said the prescriptions were traced to "just a few individuals," who weren't identified in the statement announcing the settlement. It wasn't immediately clear if there were any arrests in connection with the case. Some of the drugs obtained included oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone.

Prosecutors alleged that simple due diligence would have uncovered the fraudulent nature of the fake prescriptions. In addition to the financial settlement, CVS has entered into a three-year compliance agreement with the DEA that requires the drugstore chain to maintain and enhance programs it has developed to stop the diversion of controlled substances, authorities said.

CVS entered into the settlement with authorities to avoid the "unnecessary expense, inconvenience or uncertainty of further legal proceedings," a spokesman for the company said in a statement. "Since the covered time period, we have implemented enhanced policies, procedures and tools to help our pharmacists properly exercise their corresponding responsibility to determine whether a controlled substance prescription was issued for a legitimate medical purpose before filling it," he added.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at Ezequiel.Minaya@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 30, 2016 19:12 ET (23:12 GMT)

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