Baron & Budd Finalizes $774 Million Settlement With Albertsons in Nationwide Opioid Litigation

The settlement will provide funding to state and local governments nationwide to support recovery efforts related to the ongoing public health crisis.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week, the nationally recognized law firm Baron & Budd announced the finalization of a $774 million nationwide settlement agreement with retail pharmacy giant Albertsons Companies, Inc. Albertsons has agreed to the payout which will be distributed to states, counties, municipalities, and Native American tribes to resolve allegations concerning the company’s role in the opioid epidemic.

Baron & Budd’s President and Managing Shareholder, Russell Budd, played a leading role in negotiating the settlement. This agreement, combined with prior settlements involving opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies, brings the total national recovery amount to more than $60 billion.

While Albertsons is widely known as a grocery store chain, the company operates more than 1,700 pharmacies across the United States. Under federal and state law, retail pharmacies such as Albertsons must comply with “corresponding responsibility” obligations. These requirements mandate that pharmacies identify prescriptions with “red flags” indicating they may not have been issued for a legitimate medical purpose, document their findings, and refuse to fill prescriptions if those concerns cannot be resolved. During the multi-year litigation, public entity plaintiffs alleged that Albertsons pharmacies failed to meet these legal obligations.

Plaintiffs further alleged that Albertsons’ distribution practices, which involve distributing opioids through its own network, failed to comply with requirements to monitor and report “suspicious orders.” Federal and state laws require companies like Albertsons to identify and investigate opioid orders of unusual size, pattern, or frequency within their distribution systems.

“This settlement reflects significant progress in addressing the harm caused by the opioid crisis. For too long, critical safeguards were ignored, and our communities have paid the price,” said Russell Budd. “The opioid epidemic has taken countless lives and deeply impacted families and communities nationwide. This agreement, together with others we have helped secure, represent an ongoing effort to deliver critical resources for recovery and long-term healing.”

For more than a decade, opioid painkillers have been widely and improperly distributed, driven in part by corporate practices that prioritize profits over public health. This has fueled an opioid crisis characterized by rising rates of addiction, overdose deaths, and other serious harms. Prescription opioids played a central role in fueling the epidemic, contributing to the increase of heroin and fentanyl use, and resulting in widespread consequences, including opioid use disorder (OUD), opioid-related-mortality, hospitalizations, foster care placements, and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS).

This settlement is part of an ongoing national effort to address the devastating impacts of the opioid epidemic and to provide critical resources for communities and individuals in need of recovery support.

Baron & Budd Opioid Litigation Team

Baron & Budd attorneys represent municipalities, states, cities, counties, and tribal nations across the country in the complex opioid litigation. The firm started the opioid multidistrict litigation (MDL) and is part of the team which filed one of the first lawsuits against the drug distributors. Our attorneys co-led the first AG trial to be completed against the pharmacies, and have helped communities hold pharmacies, distributors, and manufacturers accountable for the opioid epidemic in the United States.

For more information visit, www.nationalopioidcrisis.com.

About Baron & Budd P.C.

With more than 40 years of experience, Baron & Budd has the expertise and resources to handle complex litigation throughout the United States. As a law firm that takes pride in remaining at the forefront of litigation, Baron & Budd has spearheaded many significant cases for hundreds of public entities and tens of thousands of individuals. Since the firm was founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has achieved substantial national acclaim for its work on cutting-edge litigation, trying cases to verdict and settling cases in areas of litigation as diverse and significant as dangerous and highly addictive pharmaceuticals, defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, wildfires, environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, e-cigarettes, motor vehicles, federal whistleblower cases, and other consumer fraud issues.

Debra Collier
Marketing Manager
Steven T. Baron
Shareholder
Baron & Budd, P.C.
MediaRelations@baronbudd.com