Senator says drug giant is ‘stonewalling’ opioid probe
Teva accused of not cooperating with inquiry
WASHINGTON – The world’s largest generic drug maker, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, has refused to fully cooperate with a Senate investigation into whether major opioid manufacturers contributed to the deadly drug epidemic, according to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who is leading the Senate probe.
Teva has answered some of McCaskill’s questions, providing the Senate committee with general information about its efforts to track and report suspicious orders for its opioid prescriptions, according to a series of letters between McCaskill and the company.
But Teva refused to give the senator copies of correspondence between the company and its buyers detailing efforts to combat drug diversion, and it also declined to turn over copies of any internal audits that could show whether Teva identified customers who placed questionable opioid orders.
Teva, a multinational drug company based in Israel, fills one in every six prescriptions in the United States, according to the firm’s website.
Various media reports have documented how millions of opioid painkillers were shipped to pharmacies across the country and then ended up on the black market — fueling the current addiction crisis.
Other major drug manufacturers have complied with the Senate probe, McCaskill said. She is the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
In two letters to McCaskill last year, Teva raised a series of objections to the inquiry, saying the senator was seeking proprietary information that could be “potentially misused in pending litigation.”
Teva is one of many pharmaceutical giants facing a slew of lawsuits from local and state governments, which allege the companies misled physicians and the public by marketing opioids as a safe and rarely addictive pain medication.
“In such an environment, Teva has a responsibility to be judicious in determining what documents and information to release publicly,” the drug company’s lawyer, James Matthews, said in a letter released by McCaskill this week.
McCaskill blasted the company Tuesday, saying Teva was “stonewalling a Senate investigation” and hampering her examination of a public health crisis that has ravaged communities across the U.S.