McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health shipped a combined 1.6 billion doses of opioids into Missouri from 2012 through 2017, according to a report Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., released July 12.
1. The quantity shipped was enough to give every Missouri resident 260 pills, NPR reported.
2. McKesson and AmerisourceBergen each shipped about 650 million doses into the state during the six-year period.
3. The DEA requires companies to report unusually large orders or atypical buying patterns. In the years investigated, AmerisourceBergen reported 244 opioid orders it considered suspicious. McKesson submitted more than 16,000 reports.
4. AmerisourceBergen told NPR it conducts a detailed investigation of every order its computer algorithm flags for review, rather than reporting all orders flagged by the system.
5. McKesson and Cardinal Health have been fined millions of dollars for inadequate reporting of suspicious drug orders.
6. The report shows many opioid prescriptions are stolen or prescribed unnecessarily in counties south of St. Louis and along the state's border with Arkansas, according to Ms. McCaskill's office.
