Walden wants opioid update from DEA, major drug distributors

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), ranking member of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, last week called on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and top wholesale drug distributors to provide an update on recommendations contained in a 2018 federal report on the epidemic in West Virginia.

Rep. Walden, along with U.S. Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and David McKinley (R-WV), seek details on how the DEA and drug companies are responding to recommendations in the report, Red Flags and Warning Signs Ignored: Opioid Distribution and Enforcement Concerns in West Virginia.

The Energy and Commerce Committee released the report in December 2018 after concluding its bipartisan investigation and outlining steps that should be taken by the DEA and drug distributors to ensure past mistakes were not repeated, according to Rep. Walden’s staff.

“While this report focused on a series of missteps and missed opportunities that contributed to the worsening of the opioid epidemic in West Virginia, the report raised grave concerns about distributors’ compliance programs nationwide,” as well as DEA’s enforcement nationwide, wrote Rep. Walden and his colleagues in separate Oct. 10 letters sent to DEA Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon and three opioid distributors: AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson.

Specifically, Rep. Walden and his Republican colleagues in their letter to the DEA asked for an update on the actions taken on four recommendations from the report, including how the agency is establishing guidelines for delaying Immediate Suspension Orders and how diversion resources are being allocated to ensure the regions worst afflicted by the opioid epidemic have adequate staffing and resources.

In their letters to the opioid distributors, the lawmakers want an update on the actions taken on 10 recommendations from the report, including how distributors are monitoring red flags regarding pharmacy orders and how distributors are reporting and tracking suspicious orders.