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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says it will strip one of the nation's largest drug distributors of its license to sell and ship highly addictive painkillers within 90 days if some kind of negotiated settlement isn't reached.
In a statement, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said executives at Morris & Dickson failed to accept responsibility for the "full extent of their wrongdoing ... and the potential harm it caused."
If finalized, this action taken Friday would hobble the nation's fourth-largest drug wholesaler. It comes after a controversial four-year delay.
In a statement sent to NPR, the Louisiana-based company said it remains in talks with the DEA as part of a last-ditch attempt to avert the revocation of its opioid license.
"Morris & Dickson is grateful to the DEA Administrator for delaying the effective date of the order to allow time to settle these old issues, which has been our goal since this started years ago," the statement said.
The company faces accusations it shipped highly addictive opioid pain pills for years despite evidence the drugs were being misused.
Fatal overdoses from prescription pain pills still kill more than 15,000 Americans a year. Public health experts say prescription opioid abuse opened the U.S. to an even more deadly crisis involving heroin and fentanyl.
Friday's action has been long awaited. In 2019, a federal judge recommended the DEA revoke Morris & Dickson's opioid license because of the company's "cavalier disregard" for safety rules.
In a 68-page order issued Friday, the DEA acknowledged its decision to revoke the company's opioid license took "longer than typical for the agency."
Federal officials blamed the pandemic and actions by the company for delays.
An investigation by The Associated Press also found that a top DEA official, Louis Milione, served previously as a consultant for Morris & Dickson as part of the company's effort to avoid punishment. The DEA says after Milione took his government post in 2021, he recused himself any role in the Morris & Dickson matter.
U.S. regulatory agencies, including the DEA, have faced criticism in recent years for failing to crack down on corporations that manufactured, distributed or sold opioid pain pills.
Other drug distributors involved in the opioid crisis have been allowed to continue shipping pain pills but agreed to tighter oversight and will pay more than $21 billion in settlements over the next 18 years.
In its statement, Morris and Dickson said it has also revamped its "compliance systems and processes" in an effort to improve safety.
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Transcript :
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
After a four-year delay, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is cracking down on a company that allegedly sold suspicious orders of opioid pills. The DEA says it will strip the firm Morris & Dickson of its license to sell pain pills within 90 days unless some kind of settlement is reached. Critics say the government waited too long to take this action. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann is covering this. Hi.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What did the government say this company did wrong?
MANN: So Morris & Dickson's one of the four biggest drug wholesalers in the country, and like those other corporations, they earned a lot of money shipping vast quantities of these opioid pills, these highly addictive pain pills. The DEA says over a four-year period, Morris & Dickson shipped roughly 12,000 suspiciously large orders of pills without notifying authorities. So back in 2019, a federal judge concluded the company acted with cavalier disregard for federal safety rules. He urged the DEA to revoke the company's opioid license. So today the DEA finally acted. In this order signed by DEA administrator Anne Milgram, the government says the firm failed to accept responsibility - and I'm quoting here - "for the full extent of their wrongdoing and the potential harm it caused."
SHAPIRO: So a four-year delay in taking action. Why did the government take so long?
MANN: Yeah, the DEA acknowledges this took years longer than typical. They blame the delays on the company's legal filings and on disruptions caused by the pandemic. But there's something interesting here. This delay follows closely on an investigation published by the Associated Press. The AP found one of DEA's top officials, a guy named Louis Milione, actually worked as a consultant for Morris & Dickson as the company was scrambling to avoid punishment. Milione then joined the DEA in 2021, and this has raised concerns about the revolving door between the pharmaceutical industry and government regulators. In its legal filings, the DEA says Milione recused himself from any role in this case. They say he did not influence these delays.
SHAPIRO: Now that the government has acted, what does the company say?
MANN: Well, they sent a statement to NPR, and they actually thanked the DEA for not revoking their opioid license immediately. There is now this final 90-day window for the company to work to reach some kind of settlement. And the company says they have already done a lot of work to improve safety systems and to improve their compliance with federal opioid rules.
SHAPIRO: Put this into context for us. What role did drug distributors like this company play in the overall opioid crisis?
MANN: Yeah. So what government officials and public health experts say is that these companies continued to sell and ship just vast quantities of pain pills to pharmacies all over the U.S. long after it became clear that these pills were being diverted and abused. Addiction rates and overdose deaths were soaring. It's also widely believed that these corporate practices really opened the floodgates to the wider opioid problem we're grappling with now - you know, street drugs like heroin and fentanyl.
It's important to say the other three big distributors involved in the opioid business - AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson - they have been allowed to continue selling pain pills. And they've never acknowledged any wrongdoing, though they have agreed to pay more than $21 billion in settlements. One other thing here is that there has been intense criticism of the DEA and other federal regulators for not cracking down on all of these companies faster. So the delay in this case - it's renewed concerns that the government still isn't doing this oversight fast enough or aggressively enough.
SHAPIRO: NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann. Thank you.
MANN: Thank you.
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