A House panel will question major drug distributors about pill dumping in West Virginia.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee said Thursday it would bring in the drug distributors for a hearing May 8. The hearing follows a committee investigation into how large amounts of powerful painkillers ended up in small communities.
The witnesses include officials from major drug distributors McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health, H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co., AmerisourceBergen and Miami-Luken Inc.
The committee’s investigation into pill dumping started in May, based on media reports of an unusually large amount of opioids in West Virginia, according to the committee website.
Committee leadership said it originally sought information from three distributors — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. It followed up with letters to the other distributors, Miami-Luken and H.D. Smith.
West Virginia is one of the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic. In 2016, 52 of every 100,000 people were killed by a drug overdose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
