A central argument leveled in lawsuits filed countrywide against pharmaceutical distributors, including my company, AmerisourceBergen, is the claim that we “overdistributed” opioid-based medication to particular geographies. These suits are fueled by data that distributors regularly provided on an individual basis to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

For many years, the DEA alone had access to the individual data of each distributor. Distributors only gained access to the combined data, including that of their competitors, thanks to the recent signing of the SUPPORT Act.