PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha announced the Department of Justice has filed a civil complaint against Woonsocket-based pharmacy chain CVS in connection to the opioid crisis. The Justice Department claimed CVS knowingly filled illegal prescriptions and sought federal reimbursement for many of them. “These are not subtle red flags, they are overt, they are repeated, and they were repeatedly raised by CVS’s own expert pharmacy staff,” Cunha said. The lawsuit alleges that from October 2013 to present, CVS filled prescriptions for substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose. Officials said some of those prescriptions included dangerous and excessive quantities of opioids. “The failure to step in and prevent the issuance of prescriptions that should not go out the door for dangerous and potentially fatal opioids puts lives at risk,” Cunha said. The lawsuit alleges CVS’s violations resulted from corporate-mandated performance metrics, incentive compensation, and staffing policies that prioritized profit over patient safety. CVS released a statement in response Wednesday afternoon, reading in part: “We strongly disagree with the allegations and false narrative within this complaint…Many of the litigation theories laid out in the complaint are not found in any statute or regulation, and relate to topics on which the government has declined to provide guidance.” “Respectfully I disagree,” Cunha said. “I don’t think it could be any more clear that a pharmacy has an obligation under the Controlled Substances Act that the prescriptions that it lets go out the door are legitimate.” The DOJ said the company was made aware of countless instances in which questionable prescriptions were filled. The lawsuit claims the response to many of those cases was inadequate, or no action was taken at all. “There will be civil discovery, there will be a trial, and ultimately we will determine who is responsible,” Cunha said. The U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island said officials from CVS ignored numerous warnings from their own personnel about suspicious activity. CVS maintains all of the prescriptions in question are for an FDA-approved opioid medication prescribed by a practitioner approved by the government. Categories: News, Providence, Rhode Island, US & World News