The conspiracy charges are a milestone in the government’s battle against companies accused of ignoring the diversion of hundreds of millions of painkillers to the black market.
By Lenny Bernstein Lenny Bernstein Reporter covering health and medicine Email Bio Follow April 23 at 2:32 PM Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against a major drug distributor and two of its former executives Tuesday, a new tactic that marks the first time wholesalers of legal painkillers face the prospect of prison for their roles in the nation’s opioid epidemic.
The company’s chief executive, Laurence F. Doud, was indicted and was scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday afternoon. The company agreed to pay a $20 million fine and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York agreed to defer prosecution. Pietruszewski’s attorney, William J. Hughes, did not immediate return an email seeking comment. An attorney for Doud could not be immediately located.
More than 400,000 people died of opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2017 in the largest drug crisis in U.S. history. Three enormous companies — McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen — control nearly 90 percent of the distribution market. All have settled cases with the DEA since 2007, including an agreement that resulted in a $150 million fine against McKesson, the sixth-largest U.S. company on the 2018 Fortune 500 list.
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