Ceremony Assist has shuttered all of its shops after greater than six many years in enterprise.
The pharmacy chain made the announcement in a post on its web site, stating, “All Ceremony Assist shops have now closed. We thank our loyal clients for his or her a few years of assist.”
ABC Information has reached out to the corporate for remark, however didn’t instantly hear again.
Regardless of its lengthy historical past within the pharmacy trade, Ceremony Assist has confronted mounting monetary challenges in recent times. The corporate most just lately filed for bankruptcy protection in Could, simply eight months after rising from a earlier Chapter 11 submitting in September 2024.
On the time, Ceremony Assist — which operated greater than 1,200 shops throughout 15 states from California to Vermont — mentioned it deliberate to maintain shops open whereas promoting off property to keep away from disrupting clients’ prescription companies.
The corporate additionally introduced it had secured $1.94 billion in new financing from current lenders to remain operational throughout chapter proceedings.
A Ceremony-Assist is seen on October 16, 2023 within the Crown Heights neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Photos
Ceremony Assist had first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2023, permitting it to scale back billions in debt and shut a whole lot of underperforming shops. Alongside declining gross sales, the corporate has additionally confronted greater than 1,000 federal, state, and native lawsuits alleging its pharmacies improperly stuffed prescriptions for painkillers, based on the New York Times.
In March 2023, the U.S. Division of Justice filed a complaint accusing Ceremony Assist of filling “illegal prescriptions for managed substances” that confirmed a number of pink flags for misuse — allegations the corporate has denied.
As a part of its first chapter reorganization, Ceremony Assist reached a settlement with the Justice Division in June 2024 resolving these allegations underneath the False Claims Act and Managed Substances Act. Beneath the settlement, the corporate agreed to pay the federal government $7.5 million and have a basic unsecured declare in Ceremony Assist’s chapter case, that are being dealt with by way of the court docket course of. Ceremony Assist did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The corporate’s second chapter submitting in Could 2025 paused a lot of the remaining opioid-related lawsuits together with instances introduced by state and native governments in addition to particular person plaintiffs which at the moment are being dealt with by way of the chapter’s claims course of whereas Ceremony Assist works by way of its wind-down plan — a plan that is still underneath court docket overview amid ongoing objections from the U.S. Trustee.
Ceremony Assist has denied the allegations in these lawsuits and in a press release in 2023 mentioned it sought an “equitable” decision of opioid claims by way of the Chapter 11 course of.
Based in 1962 as Thrift D Low cost Middle in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Ceremony Assist grew into the nation’s third-largest standalone pharmacy chain earlier than its closing closure.
