Senate report points finger at drug distributors for oversupply of opioids

A Senate report released this morning finds the system for reporting suspicious opioid orders has repeatedly failed. The investigation — the latest in a series of reports from Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) — notes that drug distributors AmerisourceBergen and McKesson each shipped roughly 650 million doses of opioids to Missouri between 2012 and 2017. But the companies flagged relatively few orders to authorities as suspicious: 224 from AmerisourceBergen and 16,714 from McKesson. The report also points a finger at the DEA for a years-long lull in enforcement actions.

On a related note: The Justice Department released a final rule yesterday that lets the DEA tighten opioid production quotas if it suspects drugs are being diverted for misuse. Some experts have questioned how often it'll be enforced and whether the DEA will use the rule to crack down on individual drug manufacturers.