Walmart offers to pay $3.1 billion to settle opioid lawsuits

Retail giant Walmart on Tuesday become the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of powerful prescription opioids sold at its pharmacies with state and local governments across the US

The $3.1 billion proposal follows similar announcements Nov. 2 from the two largest US pharmacy chains, CVS Health and Walgreen Co., which each said they would pay about $5 billion.

The deals are the product of negotiations with a group of state attorneys general, but they are not final. The CVS and Walgreens deals would have to be accepted first by a critical mass of state and local governments before they are completed. Walmart’s plan would have to be approved by 43 states. The formal process has not yet begun.