Rite Aid is preparing to file for bankruptcy in coming weeks to address mass federal and state lawsuits the drugstore chain is facing over its alleged role in the sale of opioids, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The chapter 11 filing would cover Rite Aid’s more than $3.3 billion debt load and pending legal allegations that it oversupplied prescription painkillers. Philadelphia-based Rite Aid hasn’t agreed on a settlement with federal, state government and private opioid plaintiffs to resolve those opioid liabilities in a potential chapter 11 and is currently planning to treat them as general unsecured claims, they said. Unsecured claims rank behind a company’s collateralized debt in bankruptcy and share in the amounts left over after secured claims are paid in full. The terms offered to Rite Aid’s opioid-related claimants in a potential chapter 11 could change. Rite Aid faces more than a thousand federal lawsuits that were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation in Ohio. The company also faces a significant number of similar cases pending in state courts that allege it contributed to the opioid epidemic, as well as a civil lawsuit by the Justice Department that alleges the company dispensed controlled substances in violation of the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act.
