House Energy and Commerce leaders expand investigation into allegations of drug dumping in W. Va.

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee informed drug distributor Miami-Luken Inc. on Monday that the committee was expanding its investigation into alleged drug dumping in West Virginia.

In May, U.S. Reps. Greg Walden (R-OR), the chairman of the committee, Tim Murphy (R-PA), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, David McKinley (R-WV) and additional bipartisan committee leaders launched an investigation into reports that extremely high amounts of opioid painkillers had been distributed to small communities in West Virginia.

In a letter sent on Monday, committee leaders informed Miami-Luken that it was expanding its existing investigation into the company’s alleged pill dumping in West Virginia. The letter requested a list of employees, documents related to the removal of specific employees, copies of court filings and documents pertaining to the due diligence files of specific pharmacies.

“We continue to be troubled by reports and records that show large amounts of these powerful and highly addictive painkillers coming in to small communities at alarming rates,” Walden and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), the ranking member of the committee, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail. “As we have continued our investigation, it became increasingly clear that we needed to extend our oversight into Miami-Luken, a significant opioid distributor that we know has been active with West Virginia’s pharmacies.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration has moved to revoke Miami-Luken’s certificate of DEA registration, alleging that the company failed to maintain effective controls over drug diversion and failed to disclose suspicious orders of controlled substances shipped to communities in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.

“West Virginia is among the hardest hit states by this epidemic, and it’s critical we get to the bottom of how such large quantities of opioids were readily available in such small towns,” Walden and Pallone said.

When the committee launched the investigation, members noted that a community with a population of 392 people and one pharmacy had received approximately 9 million hydrocodone pills over a two-year span.

“All players in the health care and enforcement community have a responsibility to help prevent opioid abuse, addiction and diversion, and DEA has been at the forefront of these efforts,” committee leaders said in a May joint statement. “With the collective data that DEA has access to, the agency can help identify and respond to suspicious order trends for addictive opioids that appear problematic or excessive. Federal regulation requires distributors to report suspicious orders of narcotics to DEA, which include ‘orders of unusual size, orders deviating substantially from a normal pattern, and orders of unusual frequency.’”