Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
9 <br />distributors admit that they "are uniquely situated to perform duee diligence in order to help <br />support the security" of controlled substance distribution.3 <br />The Guidelines set out "Know Your Customer Due Diligence" standards with respect to <br />all distributor customers — which, in the context of the Guidelines, comprises pharmacies and <br />other legal dispensaries. These due diligence standards include gathering detailed information on <br />the customer base of a pharmacy, the quantity of prescriptions filled each day, the quantity of <br />controlled substance prescriptions filled each day, and the percentage of controlled substance <br />purchases compared to overall purchases, and then utilizing this information to compare orders <br />to a "threshold" profile to identify orders of unusual size, frequency or pattern. When confronted <br />with "unusual" orders, the distributors' own Guidelines dictate that they should stop the <br />shipments, investigate the orders under steps that are listed in the Guidelines, and report the <br />suspicious activity to the DEA. These industry standards clearly establish that the duty of care <br />for pharmaceutical distributors includes identifying, investigating, and reporting suspicious <br />orders of controlled substances. <br />Distributors have chosen to abandon their duties, thereby enabling the diversion of <br />opioids and helping to create the present epidemic. The distributors have not performed adequate <br />due diligence and have failed to report suspicious orders, breaching the very industry standards <br />they, themselves, created. In doing so, the distributors have violated their duties of care and both <br />federal and North Carolina state law. <br />D. "ARCOS" Data Contains Key Evidence of the Distributors' Breaches. <br />One of the ways wholesale distributors are to maintain controls against the diversion of <br />prescription opiates is by inputting all distributions in the DEA Automation of Reports and <br />3 See HDMA Industry Compliance Guidelines. <br />North Carolina County Opioid Litigation - Privileged and Confidential 6 <br />