Senate bill would thwart prescription drug diversion

Legislation that would prevent drug diversion in real-time was introduced in the Senate this week by Sens. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Chris Coons (D-DE).

The Suspicious Order Identification Act of 2019 to enhance oversight related to prescription drug diversion. Currently, law enforcement or other oversight arms cannot provide real-time oversight of all orders for controlled substances. The senators said this is a major contributing factor to disproportionate prescription opioid shipments to certain pharmacies across the country.

This bill would eliminate the ability of bad actors to practice prescription drug diversion. It would require the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to create a program to share data in real-time to ensure that the supply chain can stop a suspicious order before it is filled.

“A few years ago, the DEA discovered a major drug company was shipping enough prescription opioids to the San Luis Valley for every man, woman, and child to have 30 to 60 pills per month,” Gardner said. “The data shows that this is a common occurrence, and it’s time for Congress to do more to protect communities being devastated by undetected prescription drug diversion. This commonsense legislation will leverage data to ensure that we stop bad actors in real-time. I’m hopeful that my bipartisan measure with Senator Coons can help in our fight against this epidemic.”

The bill would require the DEA to convene a task force to recommend the most effective program to share data and prevent diversion in real-time. After that, it will review the recommendations and implement a solution within one year.

“I’m proud to join Senator Gardner to introduce this bill to prevent unnecessary drug shipments from wreaking havoc on our communities,” Coons said. “This is a commonsense proposal that will shore up our drug supply chain—eliminating blind spots and keeping our communities safer and healthier. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bill into law.”