McKesson paying $150 million in prescription drug probe, halting sales from Colorado center
McKesson gets their controlled med license suspended for THREE YEARS because the DEA “thinks” that they failed to report “suspicious pharmacy orders”…and just what is a “suspicious pharmacy order”… No proof if diversion of controlled meds, no deaths associated with this… just the DEA and their “opinions”.
Is this the rational behind the wholesalers “rationing” controls to pharmacies and if the pharmacy is out of stock for a pt with a medically necessary/legit/on time prescription… must be just “collateral damage” for the pts having to go thru cold turkey withdrawal ? Of course, the DEA denies that they have caused wholesalers to ration controls to pharmacies. Guess who is going to end up on the short end of the stick as a reaction to this huge fine of Mc Kesson ?
Drug distributor McKesson Corp., a supplier to U.S. pharmacies, is paying $150 million and stopping prescription drugs sales from its Aurora distribution center to settle allegations that it avoided reporting suspicious pharmacy orders in Colorado and other states.
The $150 million payment by the San Francisco-based company is a record for settling an alleged violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Federal authorities say McKesson, a major distributor of drugs and medical devices, didn’t adhere to requirements for monitoring pharmacies’ orders of prescription drugs over several years, despite having settled similar allegations and paying $13.25 million in civil penalties in 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.
“When drug distributors like McKesson fail to alert the [U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency] of suspicious orders of prescription drugs by pharmacies, the end result can be fatal,” said Bob Troyer, acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado. “This settlement requires McKesson to comply with the law and holds the company accountable for its past conduct. Avoiding that legal obligation increases the narcotics street trade.”
McKesson also agreed to suspend sales of controlled substances from its distribution centers in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan and Florida under the settlement agreement.
The distribution center suspension in Colorado will last three years, the company said. The center will continue to distribute over-the-counter drugs and non-controlled substances; no job losses are anticipated as a result of the suspension, McKesson said.
According to prosecutors, McKesson supplied pharmacies an increasing amount of oxycodone and hydrocodone between 2008 and 2013, and the misuse of the two drugs are part of the rise in opioid drug abuse that’s become so pervasive it’s been deemed a national crisis.
McKesson’s distribution center in Aurora “circumvented its own compliance system in order to avoid reporting suspicious orders to the DEA,” prosecutors said. The company was supposed to set thresholds for what pharmacies could order each month, but sometimes failed to do so or increased the thresholds at the request of the pharmacies, avoiding having to report ordering activity to the DEA, prosecutors said.
In other instances, drug-order thresholds were set so high that a pharmacy could never reach it, and as a result the pharmacies wouldn’t be scrutinized for orders of unusual size or frequency or other suspicious activity, prosecutors said.
McKesson has increased its internal safeguards since 2013, when it began settlement negotiations with the DEA and justice department, the company said.
“Pharmaceutical distributors play an important role in identifying and combating prescription drug diversion and abuse. McKesson, as one of the nation’s largest distributors, takes our role seriously,” said John Hammergren, McKesson chairman and CEO.
McKesson agreed to tighter internal controls for the next five years as part of the settlement and will bring on an independent monitor to watch its compliance with the settlement agreement. Such independent monitoring is a first for a civil settlement of this sort, prosecutors said.
“This agreement demonstrates that DEA will continue to hold all those accountable – corporations and individuals – who would disregard the public’s safety for their own profit,” said Barbra Roach, special agent in charge at the DEA Denver division.
U.S. Attorneys Office prosecutors in Colorado and the Northern District of West Virginia, along with DEA lawyers, led the settlement negotiations with McKesson. DEA field office investigators and federal prosecutors in 14 other states were involved in investigating the case leading to the settlement announced Tuesday.
Filed under: General Problems
“… it’s been deemed a national crisis.”
They just deemed it a national crisis because a white people started dying in unacceptable numbers, and because the DEA & numerous other agencies & influential people (including Killer Klown Kolodny & his sidekick Jane Ballentyne) started drooling over all the money to be made from an invented an “epidemic.” If anything about this crap had to do with actual lives lost, there’d be much hue & cry about other, realer “Epidemics”: Medical Mistakes, Alcohol, Diabetes, etc etc.
The DEA has way to much power over the people. The people will take their power away from them.
Sandrag
If you can believe this… the DEA is allowed to keep any fines, confiscated assets, etc… that they impose/get from any entity .. just like they get to keep everything seized with a civil forfeiture … so that they can purchase more “toys” to use in fighting the war on drugs. Often they purchase “toys” just to have “more toys”.. and the 98% of those in Congress that we keep re-electing either have passed laws that allows them to do this and/or ignore their actions/behaviors. Of course, 43% of Congress are – by education – Attorneys… part of the same judicial system that the DEA is part of.. So perhaps the members of this “judicial fraternity” are just looking out for their fellow “frat brothers “
We need to sue this bastard for government sponsored torture and genocide,like 5 years ago..I am emailen those lawfirms,,,it will take a bit of time,,but dam,,1 has gotta pic us up??!!!MARYW