Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, on Thursday said he was asking Attorney General William Barr and the Department of Justice to look into the role of Big Pharma and their executives in fueling the opioid epidemic in America.
“That this conduct occurred in a corporate boardroom - and not on the streets - does nothing to distinguish it from illegal drug trafficking,” the Illinois lawmaker said in a letter to Barr published to his Twitter account.
“There are serious questions about whether any Big Pharma executives illegally distributed the deadly substances at the heart of this epidemic. If so, it’s imperative that the DOJ investigate, and if appropriate, prosecute the individuals responsible for this criminal conduct,” he added.
About 68,000 people died of overdoses last year, according to preliminary government statistics reported in July, as the United States is in the midst of the deadliest drug overdose epidemic in its history.
Durbin in his letter cited April drug trafficking charges filed against Rochester Drug Co-Operative and its former CEO and urged the DOJ to expand its investigative focus to the “rotten” pharmaceutical industry.
“RDC is not just one bad apple,” he wrote in the letter.
“The industry is rotten. The volume of pills the pharmaceutical industry distributed skyrocketed as the opioid epidemic surged. As these drugs took their toll and pharmaceutical revenues soared, the industry did not alter its behavior.”
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