Jan 9 (Reuters) - Kroger ( KR ) has agreed to pay $110 million

to resolve a lawsuit by the state of Kentucky alleging the

supermarket chain's pharmacies helped fuel a deadly opioid

epidemic by flooding its communities with hundreds of millions

of doses of addictive painkillers.

The settlement was announced on Thursday by Kentucky

Attorney General Russell Coleman, whose state had opted to not

participate in a broader $1.4-billion deal Kroger ( KR )

finalized last year that resolved similar claims by 30 states as

well as counties, municipalities and Native American tribes.

In a lawsuit filed in state court in February, Coleman had

alleged that Kroger's ( KR ) more than 100 Kentucky pharmacies had been

responsible for over 11% of all opioid pills dispensed in the

state from 2006 to 2019, or about 444 million opioid doses.

The lawsuit alleged Kroger ( KR ) should have known based on the

suspiciously high numbers and other red flags that the drugs

were being diverted for illicit purposes, and should have taken

measures to stop shipments and refuse to fill suspicious

prescriptions.

Instead, Kroger ( KR ) continued to ship massive quantities of

opioids throughout the state, failed to report suspicious orders

to authorities and continued to dispense addictive drugs at

"alarming" rates in Kentucky, which was hard-hit by the

drug-addiction epidemic, according to the lawsuit.

"This massive grocery chain that asked for our trust and our

business allowed the fire of addiction to spread across the

commonwealth, leaving pain and leaving so much brokenness in its

aftermath," Coleman said at a press conference.

The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain, whose $25-billion

proposed merger with rival Albertsons ( ACI ) was terminated

after courts last month blocked the deal, did not admit

wrongdoing as part of Thursday's settlement. Kroger ( KR ) had no

immediate comment.

According to the settlement agreement, Kentucky received a

substantial premium above what it would have received had it

joined the earlier broader settlement with Kroger ( KR ). Had it done

so, Kentucky would have recovered $66.6 million.

Drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy operators and

others have agreed to pay about $50 billion to resolve lawsuits

and investigations by states and local governments over their

roles in the drug-overdose epidemic.

Nearly 727,000 people in the U.S. died from opioid overdoses

from 1999 to 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention.