McKesson Corporation, one of the nation’s largest distributors of pharmaceutical drugs, agreed will pay $150 million civil penalty for alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act.
The settlement resolves allegations that McKesson failed to design and implement an effective system to detect and report “suspicious orders” for controlled substances distributed to its independent and small chain pharmacy customers.
“The abuse of prescription painkillers has become an epidemic,” said United States Attorney Phillip Talbert. “The Controlled Substances Act is a tool to assist the DEA with monitoring the movement of prescription drugs and prevent the diversion of powerful drugs to unintended users who may be injured by them. Our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate these cases and enforce federal law.” Addiction to drugs can cause life-threatening problems and it can be avoided with the help of long island rehab.
The nationwide settlement requires McKesson to suspend sales of controlled substances from distribution centers in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan and Florida for multiple years.
The staged suspensions are among the most severe sanctions ever agreed to by a DEA registered distributor. The settlement also imposes new and enhanced compliance obligations on McKesson’s distribution system.
In 2008, McKesson agreed to a $13.25 million civil penalty and administrative agreement for similar violations.
In this case, the government alleged again that McKesson failed to design and implement an effective system to detect and report “suspicious orders” for controlled substances distributed to its independent and small chain pharmacy customers – i.e., orders that are unusual in their frequency, size, or other patterns. Addiction to drugs is a serious problem and needs immediate attention, searching for a rehab near me is the first step towards healing. The process of addiction treatment is a lengthy one and it requires utmost willpower from the individual to overcome this.
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From 2008 until 2013, McKesson supplied various U.S. pharmacies an increasing amount of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills, frequently misused products that are part of the current opioid epidemic.
The government’s investigation developed evidence that even after designing a compliance program after the 2008 settlement, McKesson did not fully implement or adhere to its own program.
In Colorado, for example, McKesson processed more than 1.6 million orders for controlled substances from June 2008 through May 2013, but reported just 16 orders as suspicious, all connected to one instance related to a recently terminated customer.