Federal prosecutors have reportedly launched a criminal investigation into whether opioid manufacturers and distributors knowingly pushed doctors to prescribe unnecessary painkillers, employing criminal statutes usually reserved for drug dealers.
At least six companies have reported in regulatory filings that they received grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York, according to the Wall Street Journal: Teva Pharmaceutical Industry, Mallinckrodt, Johnson and Johnson, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. The investigation is in its early stages, and prosecutors may subpoena additional companies.
Teva and McKesson shares plummeted following the report of the probe.
If the investigation results in criminal charges of violating the Controlled Substances Act, it could become the largest prosecution yet of drug companies for their role in the opioid crisis.
Prosecutors filed a similar suit against pharmaceutical distributors in the Southern District of New York earlier this year under the same criminal charges.
“This prosecution is the first of its kind … executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in April.
