WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) was joined yesterday by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to introduce the Preventing Pill Mills Through Data Sharing Act, a bill giving the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) additional tools to hold drug distributors, manufacturers, and pharmacies accountable for identifying, reporting and stopping suspicious orders of controlled substances.

“Our recent history in West Virginia, where millions of prescription opioids flowed freely into small communities throughout the state, demonstrates all too clearly why continued action is needed to ensure suspicious orders of controlled substances are detected, stopped, and those responsible held accountable,” Senator Capito said. “I’m glad to join Senator Feinstein in introducing this legislation that builds on our past bipartisan work and provides much needed next steps to guarantee the mistakes of the past are note repeated.”

“Thousands of opioids, often bought from pharmacies, are flooding our communities and leading to devastatingly high levels of addiction and prescription drug-related overdose deaths,” Senator Feinstein said. “One West Virginia town of 392 people received nearly 9 million pills in a single year. We cannot allow pharmacies to order far more drugs than they can responsibly distribute, and drug manufacturers and distributors to supply them. The data needed to stop pharmacies from becoming pill mills already exists, we just have to make it accessible so suspicious orders can be spotted and reported to the authorities. That’s exactly what this bill does and I’m proud to introduce it with my colleagues.”

“As communities across the country continue to battle the flood of heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and other illicit opioids, we can’t ignore the drug dealers wearing white coats. Bad actors in the legitimate medication supply chain have also contributed to the spread of opioid addiction and overdoes. In some cases, pharmacies have provided small communities with lethal volumes of highly-addictive pills – far beyond what could reasonably be prescribed. This bill ensures that the Drug Enforcement Agency is able to collect and share data necessary to identify and prevent suspicious drug orders. It builds on several bills I’ve pushed to attack the opioid crisis on multiple fronts,” Senator Grassley said.

“We’ve seen opioids flood small towns in Illinois in volumes that are so dramatically high, no one would believe they were for legitimate medical needs,” Senator Durbin said. “Our bill builds upon legislation we passed last year, and the recent Inspector General report, to hold DEA accountable and enhance oversight on the pharmaceutical industry’s excessive and unjustifiable shipments.”

Specifically, the bill:

  • Requires drug manufacturers and distributors to report the sale, delivery, or other disposal of all controlled substances on a monthly, rather than quarterly basis as current law requires.
  • Extends the penalties and reporting requirements that currently apply to drug manufacturers and distributors to pharmacies.
  • Requires DEA to provide quarterly reports to manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies in a format and manner that better facilitates the identification of suspicious orders.
  • Requires DEA to provide Congress the same reports that it provides to states every six months, and expands the reporting requirements to include unusual volumes of controlled substances that are disposed of rather than sold, and unusual numbers of deleted transactions of high volumes of controlled substances.

BACKGROUND:

  • This legislation builds on Senator Capito’s Using Data to Prevent Opioid Diversion Act, which was signed into law in 2018. The legislation establishes penalties for drug distributors and manufacturers that fail to identify, stop, and report suspicious orders of opioids.
  • A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report on the DEA’s response to the opioid crisis found that the current quarterly reporting requirement for drug manufacturers and distributors results in outdated reporting, hampering the detection of suspicious orders.

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