The largest pharmacy chain in America is accused of “unlawfully dispensing large quantities of opioids and other controlled substances in order to increase its own profits at the expense of public health and safety,” according to a civil lawsuit filed by the Justice Department that was unsealed Wednesday became .

The DOJ lawsuit alleges that for more than a decade, CVS knowingly filled sometimes dubious prescriptions for controlled substances that lacked a legitimate medical purpose or were invalid.

Those prescriptions included “dangerous and excessive amounts of opioids” and “Trinity cocktails” — a mix of “particularly dangerous and abusive drug combinations consisting of an opioid, a benzodiazepine and a muscle relaxant,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also accuses the company of issuing “at least thousands of prescriptions for controlled substances” written by “well-known ‘pill mills.'”

In a statement to ABC News, CVS spokeswoman Amy Thibault called the lawsuit “misguided” and said company officials “strongly disagree with the allegations and misrepresentations described in the DOJ lawsuit” and will “vigorously defend ourselves.”

The DOJ lawsuit says CVS “contributed to the opioid crisis, a national public health emergency with devastating impacts in the United States.” The lawsuit continued: “This included improper prescriptions of extremely high doses and excessive amounts of powerful opioids that promoted dependence and addiction, as well as improper prescriptions of dangerous combinations of opioids and other drugs.”

The lawsuit accuses CVS of sometimes ignoring “egregious warning signs” about prescriptions “that bear the hallmarks of abuse and diversion.” The lawsuit points to performance metrics and incentive compensation policies that allegedly pushed pharmacists to “fill prescriptions as quickly as possible without verifying their legitimacy,” and company policies that allegedly prioritized speed over safety.

The lawsuit alleges that CVS refused to implement compliance measures recommended by its own experts to reduce the number of invalid prescriptions with red flags, “primarily for fear that they would slow the speed of prescription filling and increase labor costs.” , the lawsuit says.

The government is seeking civil penalties, injunctive relief and damages to address CVS’s unlawful practices and prevent future violations.

Thibault, the CVS spokeswoman, said in her statement that the company is an industry leader in combating opioid abuse.

“Each of the prescriptions in question was an FDA-approved opioid medication prescribed by a physician who was licensed, authorized, and authorized by the government itself to write prescriptions for controlled substances,” the statement said by Thibault.

She said the DOJ’s lawsuit “exacerbates a serious dilemma for pharmacists who are simultaneously being called into question for dispensing too many and too few opioids.”