NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Food City and the state of Tennessee announced both reached a settlement following a years-long lawsuit over alleged "eye-popping" opioid prescription numbers involving a store in Knoxville.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced a multi-million dollar settlement with Food City over its "opioid-related misconduct" on Thursday.
According to the attorney general, most of the $44.5 million settlement will go to Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Fund to support efforts addressing the opioid epidemic.
“Every entity that contributed to the opioid crisis must be held accountable," Skrmetti said. "Our Consumer Protection Division remains relentless in the pursuit of justice and I am proud of their aggressive enforcement in this case. By paying a hefty price to resolve past misconduct, Food City provides critical resources to save lives and protect families and can now get back to the business of serving its customers and supporting Tennessee communities.”
Food City said the allegations from two cases in Knox and Sevier counties stemmed from "circumstances" from more than a decade ago, saying it agreed to ensure future compliance by providing additional training to pharmacy staff, updating the prescription-validation process and monitoring and reporting data related to suspicious activity, the release said.
The AG said the settlement also included an agreement for Food City to provide employment opportunities for Tennesseans recovering from opioid addiction.
K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc., Food City's parent company, made a statement on the settlement below:
"K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to end two opioid-related cases in Knox County and Sevier County Tennessee. The cases are examples of thousands of cases nationwide brought against manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of prescription opioid products. The allegations in these two actions focus primarily on circumstances from more than a decade ago. K-VA-T has continually disputed any allegations of misconduct made in these actions. The agreement states that it is not an admission or evidence of any liability or wrongdoing. K-VA-T believes the settlement agreement is in the best interest of all parties and will contribute to the opioid-related programs that are being established as a result of the previous settlements with national retailers and distributors. K-VA-T is committed to the communities it serves and has pledged its support of local drug rehabilitation centers and their efforts to assist persons in recovery to lead more productive lives."
In 2021, the Tennessee Attorney General sued Food City over its opioid prescription numbers, accusing the company of aiding and abetting unlawful oxycodone sales at three of its Knoxville pharmacies in Bearden, West Hills and Hardin Valley in the middle of the opioid overdose epidemic. The allegations focused particularly on the Bearden store off Kingston Pike.
Among the accusations:
- Over a four-month period, the store in Bearden bought more of a type of potent opioid pill than 38 states and the District of Columbia.
- The Bearden store sold more of a type of opioid than any other retail pharmacy in the state from 2006-2014.
- For a period of time, the average prescription at the Bearden store was 267 opioid pills, an average of nine pills per day for a 30-day prescription.
- Between 2006 and 2014, the store bought 18 million Oxycodone pills, which would be enough for every person in Knoxville to have 130 each.
The lawsuit came a couple of years after Tennessee's previous attorney general, Herbert Slatery, sued drugmaker AmerisourceBergen in 2019 over accusations it had unlawfully distributed more than 8.5 million oxycodone pills between 2006 and 2012 to the Bearden Food City location in Knoxville.
Slatery compared those numbers to Knoxville's population at the time. On a single day in 2010, he said Amerisource shipped 168,000 oxycodone pills to the store -- a number almost equal to Knoxville's population.