By Marla Rose
The Columbus Dispatch
DUBLIN, Ohio— As Cardinal Health continues to face lawsuits over its alleged role in stoking the national opioid crisis, the company on Thursday is scheduled to announce a sweeping program in Appalachia aimed at combating drug abuse.
Its Opioid Action Program, in cooperation with local partners in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, is being called a pilot program that could be expanded over time.
The Dublin-based company, one of the nation’s three dominant distributors of drugs made by other companies, is targeting an initial $10 million investment in the program through June 2018, the end of Cardinal’s fiscal year. The key steps Cardinal will take include:
- Buy and distribute, free of charge, approximately 80,000 doses of Narcan, also known by its generic name naloxone HC, to first responders and law enforcement officials in the target areas.
- Increase its existing support for drug-disposal and education programs, building on the Cardinal Health Foundation’s Generation Rx program in partnership with the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy.
- Devote $3 million to expand existing grants targeting youth drug-abuse prevention education, opioid awareness for prescribing physicians and related opioid-reduction efforts.
- Join with Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School to share teaching materials on opioid misuse and treatment with medical schools in Appalachia and elsewhere.
The efforts will be based in the targeted states, where Cardinal has operations. Those could include central Ohio communities including Obetz, Groveport and Zanesville, according to a spokeswoman.
“Opioid addiction and abuse has harmed too many people in our home state of Ohio, across Appalachia and around the country,” said George Barrett, chairman and CEO of Cardinal, in a statement. “This program is intended to build on the important work we have done over the years to bring more resources to communities that need them, with a focus on known solutions that will help families and communities combat this epidemic.”
Cardinal announced the broad parameters of the plan in August but has not previously released any details. Since then, the company has continued to draw fire from critics.
In the wake of multi-million dollar settlements from Cardinal and its two competitors, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson in opioid-related cases, cities and municipalities have continued to sue the distributors.
Also, last week, an investor group led by the Teamsters protested at Cardinal’s annual shareholders meeting over opioid deaths and the company’s alleged role in the crisis. And two days before that, the company announced Barrett would relinquish the CEO title at the end of the year and step down as executive chairman in November 2018. The Teamster-led group wanted the company to separate the roles of CEO and chairman.
Cardinal and its competitors also are under heightened scrutiny following an October report from 60 Minutes and the Washington Post, in which a former Drug Enforcement Administration official charged them with helping pass legislation that tied the DEA’s hands in stopping opioid diversion.
Through a trade group, the drug-distribution companies have countered that the 2016 Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act did not hamper DEA enforcement actions.
One official that has been involved with Cardinal’s anti-drug-abuse efforts in the past understands that the latest announcement may be viewed with skepticism, given the climate.
But Dr. Ken Hale, a clinical professor in OSU’s pharmacy college and co-director of its Generation Rx program with Cardinal, says he believes Cardinal and its employees have been committed for years with little fanfare to helping prevent and stem opioid abuse. As part of Generation Rx, Cardinal has given money to help pay for workers and materials devoted to the program at OSU since 2009.
“I’ve been very impressed with what they’re trying to do,” Hale said. “They’ve invested a considerable amount of funds and employees’ time to prevention efforts with us. They’ve reached millions of people, from grade school age to senior citizens.”
Hale echoed Barrett and the Healthcare Distribution Alliance industry trade group in stressing that the drug epidemic has many causes and many players who must be part of the solution.
“I’m not saying the distributors don’t have any culpability in this,” he said. “But pharmacists, health professionals, patients... all have responsibility. To point the finger at drug distributors is misguided.”
The program certainly won’t be a cure-all for the opioid problem, which has had an outsized impact on Appalachia. In Ohio alone last year, EMS workers reportedly administered in excess of 19,500 doses of nalaxone, the anti-overdose medication Cardinal will be distributing.
More information on the program will be posted online at www.cardinalhealth.com/opioidactionprogram.
Copyright 2017 The Columbus Dispatch