Neighborhood News: The Long Island drug-maker with a hand in the Adderall shortage

• Published in: New York (1968) 2024-02
• Main Author: Walsh, James D
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Business; Controlled substances; Drug dosages; Drugs; Employees; Investigations; Manufacturers; Manufacturing; Narcotics; Pharmaceutical industry; Pharmacy
• ISSN: 0028-7369

According to the government and industry experts, there are multiple overlapping causes: manufacturing problems, labor issues, supply-chain failures, and a huge rise in demand during the pandemic. The DEA revealed that its probe into Ascent had been part of an investigation called Operation Bottleneck, an effort to rein in lax recordkeeping by drug manufacturers that had contributed to the opioid epidemic. (According to Walden, 80 percent of the company’s controlled-substances revenue comes from stimulants and 20 percent from painkillers.) It alleged that Ascent had “failed to make records available for inspection in a timely manner and shipped controlled substances without producing required documentation” and that it “did not accurately account for millions of dosages” of oxycodone, methylphenidate, hydrocodone, amphetamines, and other drugs. During the painkiller epidemic, as state attorneys general and local governments brought hundreds of cases against opioid manufacturers and distributors, they routinely cited the DEA’s poor monitoring of the companies’ records as a factor that helped flood the country with OxyContin and similar drugs.