Bartell Drugs owner Rite Aid files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Rite Aid Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sunday, as it comes under pressure from lawsuits alleging that the drugstore chain helped fuel the opioid crisis in the United States.

The Philadelphia-based drug chain operates more than 2,000 retail stores across 17 states in the U.S., although it is much smaller than its rivals such as Walgreens Boots Alliance and CVS Health.

There are five Rite Aid stores remaining in the Seattle area. Seattle-based Bartell Drugs, which is owned by Rite Aid, closed its location at 15th and Market, in an area north of downtown Seattle, on June 8, according to a report by Supermarket News.

To fund itself during the Chapter 11 process, Rite Aid reached a deal with lenders for $3.45 billion in financing, and entered an agreement for Elixir to be acquired by PBM company MedImpact Healthcare Systems Inc., according to a statement. The stores that are not closed will either be sold or taken over by creditors.

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Back in 2019, Bartell announced it would not be opening any more stores in Seattle due to theft and assaults on employees. Data on Seattle.gov indicates the violent crime rate in the city reached a 15-year high in 2022.

Rite Aid listed estimated assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion in a court filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Along with other pharmacy chains, it has been named a defendant in lawsuits that alleged they helped fuel the opioid crisis in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Justice in March sued Rite Aid, accusing the pharmacy chain of missing “red flags” as it illegally filled hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances, including opioids.

More than 900,000 people have died of drug overdoses in the U.S. since 1999, with opioids playing an outsized role, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.