Rite Aid Files for Bankruptcy as Debt Load, Opioid Risk Rise (4)

US pharmacy chain Rite Aid Corp. filed for bankruptcy in an effort to close unprofitable stores, address lawsuits over its role in the opioid pandemic and rework a debt load of roughly $4 billion.

The company, which began in 1962 as a single drugstore in Scranton, Pennsylvania, employs around 45,000 people across more than 2,000 locations. In 2015, it entered the pharmacy benefit manager business, serving as a middleman between insurers and patients that helps process prescriptions. It’s now planning to sell that business, called Elixir, in bankruptcy.

Hit hard by the pandemic, Rite Aid began a series of debt ...