by
Lauren Dubinsky, Senior Reporter | December 19, 2017
Schiller thinks McKesson got off too easy. In the 60 Minutes piece, he explained that he and his team wanted to fine the company over a billion dollars, revoke registrations to distribute controlled substances, and put a McKesson executive in jail, but he claimed the DEA and DOJ attorneys refused to go against the company’s powerful lawyers.
McKesson’s lead attorney, Geoffrey E. Hobart,
told the Washington Post that the prospect of criminal charges or a $1 billion fine were never mentioned by government lawyers during almost three years of negotiations.
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“If the lawyers for the government believed there was criminal conduct here, they would have told me about it,” he added. “That would have increased the leverage they had, and that never happened.”
In a
statement released on Monday, McKesson said that the 60 Minutes story contained “sweeping and unsubstantiated accusations.” The company denied engaging in criminal conduct and knowingly supplying controlled substances to rogue pharmacies that divert the drugs to “bad actors.”
McKesson is not the only drug manufacturer to come under fire for failing to report suspicious pharmaceutical orders.
In July, Mallinckrodt agreed to pay $35 million to settle claims that it violated certain provisions of the Controlled Substances Act.
In addition, 41 attorneys general from across the country are
conducting a multi-state investigation into whether companies that manufacture and sell prescription opioid drugs have engaged in unlawful practices.
They are demanding information and documents from Endo International plc, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd./Cephalon Inc., Allergan Inc., AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson.
In the Washington Post piece, Schiller said the DEA lawyers asked him why he is going after a company as big as McKesson when he can go after smaller companies that won’t put up a fight.
He responded, “That’s exactly why you want to go after McKesson. They’re the prize. They’re the ones that are going to send a message to the thousands of mom-and-pops, to other big distributors, to the manufacturers, that this is no longer acceptable. ”
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