Rite Aid Execs Defeat Securities Suit Over Opioids, Retail Plan

Rite Aid Corp. investors can’t proceed with a proposed class action against several executives over the drugstore chain’s opioid liability and a disrupted retail strategy, a federal court ruled.

The investors didn’t adequately allege the current and former officers of the now-bankrupt company made false or misleading statements, Judge Kelley B. Hodge of the the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said.

They also failed to tie their losses to news reports, press releases, and earnings calls that they characterized as corrective disclosures, Hodge said in an order docketed Friday.

The suit stems in part from regulatory action and product liability litigation that targeted a number of retail pharmacy chains, including Rite Aid, for allegedly filling unnecessary and suspicious opioid prescriptions. The investors allege that Rite Aid, burdened by debt from unprofitable acquisitions, ignored red flags related to thousands of prescriptions from at least 2015 to 2019.

The suit also alleged that after the opioid debacle, Rite Aid developed a strategic plan called RxEvolution, focusing on customer engagement by pharmacists, in-store telehealth “wellness rooms,” and other retail changes.

The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the strategy and resulted in a chaotic diversion of resources to Covid-related needs.

The investors voluntarily dismissed Rite Aid itself as a defendant following the resolution of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024. The retailer filed for a second bankruptcy in May of this year.

Hodge’s order dismissed the case against the Rite Aid executives who remained as defendants. She found that targeted statements they made in Securities and Exchange Commission filings about regulatory and liability risks were protected as opinions and weren’t false. Some were inactionable expressions of optimism, as were many statements about the RxEvolution initiative, she said.

The loss causation allegations also fell short, she said. Earnings calls and press releases related to RxEvolution, for example, “only reveal the poor financial situation that Rite Aid was in—a fact known to investors for the past ‘three decades,’” the judge said, citing the investors’ complaint.

Hodge also dismissed a separate suit over Rite Aid’s pharmacy benefit management division in April.

Levi & Korsinsky LLP was lead counsel for the investors. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP represented the defendants.

The case is Holland v. Standley, E.D. Pa., No. 2:23-cv-02962, 8/21/25.