Doubt has been cast over the potential sale of Walgreens Boots Alliance to a private equity firm amid American media reports that the deal with Sycamore Partners is “mostly dead”. 

A CNBC financial journalist said on the air earlier this week that the deal – first mooted last December – was unlikely to go through.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a share price tumble following recent news of a lawsuit brought against Walgreens concerning opioid drugs dispensing in the US may have been a contributing factor to the rumoured $10bn deal falling through but added that it “was always a long shot”. 

Walgreens also agreed to pay $106.8m last September to settle claims it fraudulently charged the US government for prescriptions that were never dispensed. WBA acknowledged it had received an overpayment but did not admit liability, stating that it was due to a software error. 

WBA is focusing on an intense cost-cutting exercise within its US business and is set to axe over a thousand stores after a closure programme was first announced last year. 

It was previously reported that the sale of WBA to Sycamore could lead to the Boots UK business being sold off separately – one of several times in recent years there has been market speculation that the UK’s largest pharmacy chain might be sold off.  

WBA has been approached for comment.