Walgreen’s to pay $7.5 million settlement over illegally-filled prescriptions

Prosectors say former employee filled more than 700,000 prescriptions

OAKLAND, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Walgreen's will pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by two California counties after a former employee allegedly impersonated a pharmacist and illegally filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions.

Prosecutors say Kim Thien Le used the license numbers of registered pharmacists to dispense pharmaceuticals at Walgreen's stores in the San Francisco Bay area. They say she illegally filled more than 754,000 prescriptions, including scripts for fentanyl, morphine, and codeine.

District attorneys in both San Francisco and Oakland counties filed a consumer protection action against Walgreen's. Tuesday's agreement settles that suit.

The company says it has re-verified the licenses of all its pharmacists nationwide in the wake of the incident.

Kim Thien Le has pleaded not guilty to all charges connected to the case.