The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has rescinded an earlier order stripping the company of its license for failing to properly monitor shipments of tens of millions of addictive painkillers allegedly fueled by opioids. One pharmaceutical wholesaler was allowed to continue operating. crisis.
As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, Morris & Dixon admitted wrongdoing, agreed to comply with enhanced reporting requirements and surrender one of its two registration certificates to the DEA. . The Shreveport, Louisiana-based company, which has about 600 employees and annual revenues of about $4 billion, also agreed to forfeit $19 million.
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Last May, the nation’s fourth-largest drug distributor continued to ship drugs for nearly four years after a federal judge recommended the harshest penalties for Morris & Dixon’s “senseless disregard.” DEA Administrator Ann Milgram revoked the licenses of both companies after an Associated Press investigation found that Establishment of regulations aimed at preventing opioid abuse.
“Of all the cases I handled as a DEA administrative law judge, the Morris & Dixon violations were the most blatant and egregious,” Judge Charles Dorman told The Associated Press. “Furthermore, there was no indication that they were actually accepting responsibility for their violations.”
After the Associated Press reported that Milgram’s handpicked DEA deputy, Louie Milione, was previously a consultant for Morris & Dixon, Purdue Pharma and other drug companies blamed for the opioid epidemic. Years of delays in issuing the order highlighted a revolving door in Washington.
Last summer, Mr. Milione resigned from the DEA for a second time and returned to Guidepost Solutions, a New York-based private investigation firm that has advised pharmaceutical companies and distributors, including Morris & Dixon, in the past. Ta. Guidepost did not immediately respond to an email asking whether Morris & Dixon remains a customer.
The DEA acknowledged last year that it took “longer than the agency’s normal time” to make a final decision, but Morris & Dixon blamed the coronavirus pandemic and lengthy investigation. He blamed some for delaying the process by asking for a delay. settlement.
Morris & Dixon said Wednesday it is looking forward to future growth after resolving a lawsuit that forced the 182-year-old company out of business.
On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, the Wilkinson Family Pharmacy in Chalmette, Louisiana is raided by local police and the Drug Enforcement Administration. (Sophia Germer/The Advocate, via AP, File)
The company said in a statement that the settlement “recognizes the company’s extensive and voluntary efforts over the past five years to improve and strengthen its compliance structure.” “In fact, as a result of our efforts, our state-of-the-art compliance program has been repeatedly recognized by external stakeholders as excellent and above reproach.”
In a news release, the DEA did not say why it denied the earlier order halting Morris & Dixon’s operations. But it again accused the company of turning a blind eye to thousands of unusually large orders for hydrocodone and oxycodone.
“Today, Morris & Dixon took an important first step in admitting its wrongdoing and paying the price for its wrongdoing,” said DEA spokeswoman Katherine Pfaff. We will ensure that this does not continue in the future.”
Neither the DEA nor Morris & Dixon immediately responded to requests for comment.
Although Morris & Dixon has managed to stay open, some of the pharmacies it supplied have been shut down, had their licenses revoked by the DEA, or faced criminal charges.
Among the more than 12,000 suspicious orders that Judge Dorman said Morris & Dixon should have reported to the DEA were 51 unusually large orders of opioids manufactured by the Wilkinson Family Pharmacy in suburban New Orleans. It was included.
Wilkinson purchased more than 4.5 million pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone from Morris & Dixon from 2014 to 2017, and federal prosecutors say during that time, owner Keith Wilkinson sold forged prescriptions and “pill manufacturing” drugs. It alleges that it laundered more than $345,000 from illegal sales made by doctors at the hospital. In May he was sentenced to six years in federal prison.
In one month, 42% of all prescriptions filled by Wilkinson were for painkillers, and 38% of those were paid in cash. The DEA considers it suspicious if a pharmacy’s sales of controlled substances exceed 15% or cash transactions exceed his 9%.
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But Morris & Dixon never stopped shipping to pharmacies. In three years, the company filed only three suspicious order reports against him with the DEA, none of which resulted in a shipment suspension.
