Rochester Drug Cooperative
Do settlements for corporate malfeasance work? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 470,000 Americans have died from prescription opioid overdoses since the addiction crisis began in the late 1990s, after pharmaceutical companies began aggressively marketing highly addictive painkillers. Last year, the Justice Department arrested executives who worked for a major prescription drug distributor called Rochester Drug Cooperative — one of the companies that ship large quantities of opioids from manufacturers to local pharmacies. It is the first time executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking. One of the company's executives pleaded guilty, however, while the firm itself admitted wrongdoing, it agreed to only pay a fine of $20 million, partially settling the matter. Executives allegedly funneled prescription opioid pills to pharmacies that then sold them on the black mar...