Justice Dept. Sues AmerisourceBergen Over Role in Opioid Crisis - The New York Times

The Justice Department filed a suit connected Thursday against AmerisourceBergen, 1 of the country’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, accusing the institution of knowingly distributing opioids that were aboriginal resold illegally.

The suit, filed by the department’s civilian part successful conjunction with national prosecutors successful New Jersey, Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York, is portion of a increasing effort by national agencies to hold cause companies accountable for their relation successful the nation’s opioid crisis. It accuses AmerisourceBergen and 2 of its subsidiaries of “at slightest hundreds of thousands” of violations of the Controlled Substances Act. If the institution is recovered liable, it could look billions of dollars successful fines, according to Vanita Gupta, the subordinate lawyer wide overseeing the civilian division.

Under federal law, wholesale cause distributors similar AmerisourceBergen are obligated to study “suspicious” orders of controlled substances to the Drug Enforcement Administration. An bid is considered suspicious if it is an antithetic size oregon does not travel the mean signifier oregon frequency, oregon if it raises different concerns, specified arsenic the legitimacy of a customer’s business.

In an 80-page complaint, filed successful Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Justice Department accused AmerisourceBergen of failing to study galore of these suspicious orders for astir a decade, successful what it described arsenic an “egregious failure” that had contributed to the opioid epidemic.

More than 90,000 radical died successful the United States from cause overdoses successful 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Opioids were progressive successful adjacent to 75 percent of those deaths.

In the complaint, investigators cited 5 examples of violations, including astatine 2 pharmacies, 1 successful Florida and 1 successful West Virginia, wherever they said AmerisourceBergen knew that its drugs were apt being sold successful parking tons for cash. They besides cited violations involving pharmacies successful New Jersey whose employees had been charged with cause offenses.

A 5th pharmacy, successful Colorado, was the largest purchaser of oxycodone 30-milligram tablets successful the state; investigators said that AmerisourceBergen knew this and continued to proviso the pharmacy, adjacent though 11 of its customers were identified arsenic perchance having cause addictions. At slightest 2 of them aboriginal died of overdoses, according to the complaint.

The suit is abstracted from a national transgression enquiry into the company’s actions and a $26 cardinal settlement reached successful February by respective cause companies, including AmerisourceBergen, based successful Conshohocken, Pa., successful thousands of civilian claims successful authorities courts related to the opioid crisis.

“For years, AmerisourceBergen enactment its profits from opioid income implicit the information of Americans,” said Philip R. Sellinger, the U.S. lawyer for the territory of New Jersey, successful a telephone with reporters.

“This was portion of a brazen, blatant and systemic nonaccomplishment by 1 of the largest companies successful America to comply with its obligations to study suspicious opioid orders, contributing to the epidemic of opioid maltreatment passim this country,” helium added.

Jacqueline C. Romero, the U.S. lawyer for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said the allegations against the institution were particularly disturbing, fixed that its office were lone a fewer miles from neighborhoods successful Philadelphia devastated by the opioid epidemic.

In a connection Thursday, AmerisourceBergen said the ailment “focuses connected 5 pharmacies that were cherry-picked retired of the tens of thousands of pharmacies that usage AmerisourceBergen arsenic their wholesale distributor, portion ignoring the lack of enactment from erstwhile administrators astatine the Drug Enforcement Administration — the D.O.J.’s ain agency.”

The institution said that it had verified the registration and licenses of the 5 pharmacies earlier filing immoderate orders; conducted “extensive owed diligence” into the customers; and reported the income and hundreds of suspicious orders of controlled substances to the D.E.A.

“With the immense quantity of accusation that AmerisourceBergen shared straight with the D.E.A. with regards to these 5 pharmacies, the D.E.A. inactive did not consciousness the request to instrumentality swift enactment itself,” the institution said, adding that it had terminated relationships with 4 of the pharmacies earlier the bureau took enactment against them.

AmerisourceBergen reported gross of $214 cardinal successful 2021.

Prosecutors said that institution executives reported lone a fraction of suspicious transactions, contempt knowing that galore of their pills were being diverted to the amerciable market, according to the complaint.

The ailment said that AmerisourceBergen executives ignored reddish flags of cause diversion and relied connected inadequate interior systems to show suspicious orders. It besides accused the institution of intentionally altering records to trim the fig of controlled substances reported arsenic suspicious.