Information from ARCOS (Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders)—the DEA’s reporting system for controlled substance transactions—is now publicly available which shows which companies supplied opioids and which companies distributed opioids in St. Mary’s County. The data also reveal which pharmacies dispensed the most opioids in St. Mary’s County. The time period covered is from 2006 to 2012.
Our national trial team has reformatted the information so that the public can read summaries of millions of lines of data. Those summary reports include “Total Dosage Units of 15 Opioid Drugs”, “State of Maryland and St. Mary’s County: 14 Opioid Drugs Dosage Units Market Share”, “Labeler Market Share by Drug, 2006-2012”, “Labeler Market Share by Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME), 2006-2012” and “Opioid Shipments to Pharmacies”. This is all now available at www.SLCG.com under the “opioids” tab. “Labeler” is another term for “manufacturer.”
Hydrocodone and oxycodone accounted for 78% of all opioids distributed in the county. Over 90 percent of the hydrocodone and 80.5% of the oxycodone came through three manufacturers. Those manufacturers are SpecGx, Par Pharma, and Actavis Pharma.
The top two distributors of oxycodone were Cardinal Health and McKesson Corporation, followed by Walmart, and other distributors. The top distributors of hydrocodone were CVS, Cardinal Health, and other distributors.
The top 10 pharmacies distributing the drugs were as follows:
1. CVS (3 DEA licenses) – combined total of 7,312,798 total dosage units (TDU)/81,850,946 MME
2. Tidewater – 5,897,971 TDU/126,990,436 MME
3. Rite Aid (2 DEA licenses) – combined total of 2,941,297 TDU/42,378,804 MME
4. Target – 2,760,600 TDU/42,561,736 MME
5. St. John’s Pharmacy – 2,501,176 TDU/40,512,469 MME
6. Wal-Mart – 2,407,207 TDU/27,652,890 MME
7. Thrift Drug (2 DEA licenses) – combined total 1,843,556 TDU/31,094,291 MME
8. Giant Pharmacy – 1,460,690 TDU/24,084,282 MME
9. McKay’s Pharmacy (3 DEA licenses) – combined 766,707 TDU/8,696,760 MME
10. Reynolds Pharmacy – 603,292 TDU/11,248,898 MME
Tidewater Pharmacy was ranked as #9 in the report entitled, “Opioid Shipments to Top 20 Pharmacies in MD, by Dosage”.
St. Mary’s County’s case is part of the national opioid multi-district litigation (MDL) #2804. The opioid MDL is being overseen by the Hon. Daniel A. Polster. While there is much more information that we are receiving through the MDL’s discover process, we are not authorized to release it at this time.
The first consolidated trial in the opioid MDL—“Track One” representing Summit County, Ohio and Cuyahoga County, Ohio—commences October 21, 2019. That trial will be held in Cleveland, Ohio. Much more information should become available to the public as a result of the trial.
St. Mary’s County is aggressively preparing for trial in order to recover damages now being suffered by the taxpayers and also to mandate a change as to how these drugs are marketed and distributed in our County.
