Drug Company Settles U.S. Opioid Probe For $35 Million

DETROIT (WWJ) - A drug company will pay a $35 million fine after an investigation by federal Drug Enforcement agents in Detroit.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which is one of the largest manufacturers of narcotic painkiller oxycodone, will pay the fine to settle allegations that it violated the Controlled Substances Act including poor record keeping at its New York plant.

According to federal authorities, Mallinckrodt failed to report suspicious orders for drugs that have been a part of the current opioid epidemic in Michigan and across the nation.

A three-year investigation that started in 2008, led by DEA's Detroit Field Office, showed Mallinckrodt supplied distributors, and the distributors then supplied various U.S. small chain pharmacies and pain clinics, an increasingly high amount of oxycodone pills without notifying the DEA about the orders.

"We're grateful for the work of the DEA who have invested countless hours investigating this first of its kind case," said acting Acting United States Attorney Lemisch, in a statement. "This settlement continues our fight against the opioid epidemic by requiring all in the supply chain not to participate in suspicious orders: physicians, pharmacies, distributors and now - manufacturers."

Mallinckrodt is baded in Staines-upon-Thames, England, with its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri,