OPIOID INVESTIGATION: Springboro drug wholesaler testifying in D.C. today

A Springboro drug distributor will testify today before a Congressional committee that’s investigating the opioid crisis in West Virginia.

The committee is investigating whether wholesalers flooded West Virginia with dangerous levels of prescription opioids, contributing to the overdose crisis.

Dr. Joseph Mastandrea, chairman of the board at Miami-Luken, will join four executives at other distributors also called to testify starting 10 a.m. Tuesday before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee oversight panel.

The wholesalers like Miami-Luken buy prescription drugs from manufacturers and then distribute them to pharmacies that place orders for the drugs.

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At the hearing, the committee intends to look into whether the wholesalers sold unsafe volumes of prescription pills to West Virginia, when investigators say the companies instead should have reported suspiciously large orders to authorities.

The other testifying executives will be AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson, known as the “big three” distributors, as well as the former president and CEO of H.D. Smith, a distributor that sold in January to AmerisourceBergen.

The hearing will be on the one-year anniversary of when the committee first requested information from the big three distributors.

According to documents provided by Miami-Luken at the request of the committee, more than 24 million high power painkillers were shipped by Miami-Luken to four small pharmacies in West Virginia between 2005 and 2015. In one rural town in 2008 alone, that divided out to 5,624 pills for every person in town including children.

“Today, we have a more complete picture of what happened in places like West Virginia, and we will hold all parties accountable for their actions,” stated Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., also chairman of the oversight committee. “I, along with my colleagues, urge our witnesses to help us complete this puzzle so we can ensure this will never happen again.”

Miami-Luken is separately fighting a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration effort to take away its distribution license.

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