“On Tuesday, February 27, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Prescription Interdiction & Litigation (“PIL”) Task Force in an ongoing effort to curb the country’s current prescription opioid crisis. According to DOJ’s press release, the PIL Task Force will ‘aggressively deploy and coordinate all available criminal and civil law enforcement tools…with a particular focus on opioid manufacturers and distributors.’”
“The PIL Task Force aims to coordinate federal, state and local resources and efforts to attack the opioid epidemic on multiple levels of the drug manufacturing and distribution system. The Task Force will utilize all available civil and criminal enforcement remedies, including the False Claims Act and Controlled Substances Act, to hold opioid manufacturers and distributors such as pharmacies, pain management clinics, drug testing facilities and individual physicians accountable for unlawful actions. The Task Force will work closely with the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to investigate and bring enforcement actions against any parties who engage in illegal activity related to prescription opioids.”
“This follows DOJ’s August 2017 deployment of the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit, a program designed to utilize sophisticated data analytics…” Read the full post here.
Source: DOJ Announces New Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force to Combat Prescription Opioid Crisis – March 5, 2018. Hall Render.
