DEA Orders Against Cardinal Health and CVS Stores in Florida Suspended Pending Hearing Outcomes

February 15, 2012 5:28 PM

The DEA's Immediate Suspension Orders (ISO) issued at a Cardinal Health Distribution Center and two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, FL, were suspended through the granting of temporary restraining orders pending the outcomes of United States District Court and administrative hearings.

The ISO served February 3, 2012, against Cardinal Health’s distribution center in Lakeland, FL, alleges that “the distribution center failed to maintain effective controls against the diversion of controlled substances into other than legitimate medical, scientific, and industrial channels,” and that Cardinal Health “failed to conduct due diligence to ensure that the controlled substances were not diverted into other than legitimate channels” as reported in a DEA news release. On February 3, 2012, Cardinal Health was granted a request for a temporary restraining order (PDF) that removes this suspension on handling controlled substances (CS) and allows the center to resume activities. The judge’s order indicates that Cardinal Health had already suspended distributions to two pharmacies several months ago, and has temporarily suspended distributions to the two Sanford, FL, locations until the case is resolved. US District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton granted Cardinal’s request and in a hearing on February 13, 2012, ordered DEA to provide additional information regarding its rationale for the ISO against Cardinal by the end of next week, reports ABC.

The ISOs served at two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, FL “allege, among other things, that each registrant failed to exercise its corresponding duty regarding the proper prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances,” and “each registrant was filling prescriptions far in excess of the legitimate needs of its customers,” as stated in the DEA news release. On February 7, 2012, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, US District Court, Washington DC, granted a temporary restraining order to CVS Caremark Corp that allows the two Florida locations to continue dispensing CS prescriptions while Jackson reviews the case for 30 days. CVS indicates that prior to the ISOs, the company provided DEA with requested documentation of the stores’ dispensing volumes, and that months earlier, CVS had notified certain prescribers that their pharmacies would no longer fill prescriptions they write for painkillers and other addictive medications, reports the Orlando Sentinel. Judge Jackson stated that CVS would likely be able to show that DEA failed to establish that these pharmacies’ registration to dispense CS posed an “imminent danger to public health,” according to Reuters.