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Home / MCNTalk / Tag: Pharmacy

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Pharmacy

October 19, 2012

Drug Distributors Pressured to Reduce Narcotic Painkiller Shipments

Over the past few months, the DEA has tried a variety of different tactics to battle our painkiller epidemic.

From arresting hundreds of doctors, cracking down on pill mills, and investigating pharmacies, it’s most recent attempt has large drug distributors rattled.

The New York Times reports that after honing in on Florida and Ohio, the DEA is now putting pressure on other pharmaceutical distributors nationwide.

Earlier this year, the agency charged drug distributor Cardinal Health for violating it license to sell controlled drugs. Since then, Cardinal no longer does business with a dozen pharmacies in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Oklahoma and the number is growing.

The article notes that the pressure has pushed distributors to create a nationwide shipment reduction to pharmacies and doctors who order a high volume of narcotic pain killers.

“We had a strong anti-diversion system in place, but no system is perfect,” Cardinal Chairman and Chief Executive told the Times.

Since then, they have strengthened their criteria and  have also  created a committee that evaluates pharmacies that order large amounts of narcotic drugs.

Another major distributor, AmerisourceBergen, recently disclosed that it also faces a federal criminal inquiry into its oversight of painkiller sales.

The DEA’s crackdown on pharmacies and big distributors like Cardinal and AmericsourceBergen have shown that the agency is taking a much more aggressive approach to ending our nations painkiller issue.

However, doctors and pharmacies are critical of the way distributors have abruptly cut them off from their supply. One California pharmacist argued that his pharmacy specializes in pain patients which would explain his high volume orders.

“The drug distribution system is a sprawling one that involves about 800 companies, which range in size from a few giants like Cardinal to hundreds of small firms. For wholesalers, the markup on medications can be small, sometimes a few pennies a pill. But with billions of pills sold annually, the profits can be big. Narcotic painkillers are now the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States, with sales last year of $8.5 billion.”

There is also added incentive to sell Oxycontin and other narcotic painkiller because of their addictive properties and because street value on the black market is as much as $80 per 80-milligram dose.

However, while the DEA is implementing new tactics against distributors for failing to notify the agency of a “suspicious order” from a pharmacy or other customer, it does not share those reports with officials in the state where the pharmacy is based.

After the New York Times had asked for the agency to disclose the number of such reports it received annually, they declined saying, the agency considered such statistics “law enforcement sensitive” information.

In response, the Times has filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking that data. Read More…

 

47.608945-122.332015

Tagged: AmerisourceBergen, brain, Cardinal Health, Cost Containment, DEA, Drug Abuse, Drug Enforcement Administration, Government Policy, new york times, Oxycodone, Pharmacy, Regulatory Issues Leave a Comment

September 18, 2012

DEA Investigates Walgreens for Oxycodone Distribution

In an effort to battle the prescription drug abuse epidemic, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is turning it’s focus to drug wholesalers and retail pharmacies. Last Friday, the DEA issued warrants to inspect six Walgreens Florida pharmacies on suspicion that Oxycodone is being diverted to the black market.
The Reuters article “Crackdown on Prescription Painkillers Widens to Walgreens,” provides a breakdown of the DEA’s investigation and why increased sales volume of highly addictive painkillers sparked some red flags. The article stated:

“The purchase of large amounts of Oxycodone by a retail pharmacy is indicative of a pharmacy that fills prescription issued by physicians at pain clinics and/or a pharmacy which services primarily drug seeking individuals that abuse the medication.” Read More…

The death toll from narcotic painkillers now exceeds those of heroin and cocaine combined and DEA agents are determined to stop the illegal distribution of Oxycodone. They have already suspended  CVS Caremark Corp and Cardinal Health Inc’s license to distribute because they believe they “failed to conduct due diligence to insure that all prescription drugs are sent only to legitimate channels.”

All DEA Registrants have an obligation to ensure that medications are getting into the hands of legitimate patients, and when they choose to look the other way, patients suffer and drug dealers prosper,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Mark Trouville said in the email. Read More…

47.608945-122.332015

Tagged: Cost Containment, DEA, Drug Abuse, Drug Enforcement Administration, Oxycodone, Pharmacy, Prescription medication, Regulatory Issues, Reuters, Substance abuse, Walgreen Leave a Comment

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