Ranking Member Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) speaks prior to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testifying before a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on border security on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 5, 2017. Reuters/Aaron P. Bernstein A Senate investigation into whether or not big pharmaceutical companies had a hand in starting America's current opioid epidemic just got wide.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) will now add drugmakers Mallinckrodt, Endo, Teva, and Allergan to the probe, as well as distributors AmerisourceBergen Corporation, and Cardinal Health, Inc.

"We’ve seen numerous reports that potentially hundreds of millions of opioid pills wound up on the black market, fueling a nationwide epidemic—we need a better understanding of how committed these companies are to preventing this type of drug diversion or whether they are turning a blind eye," McCaskill said in a press release. "The people of Missouri and the countless families affected by this epidemic across the country deserve to find out everything possible about the root causes of this crisis."



This spring McCaskill announced a probe into drugmakers Purdue, Johnson & Johnson, Mylan, and Depomed. The point is to see whether or not the companies encouraged the off-label use of opioid painkillers, and understand how they were marketed to physicians.

Now Mallinckrodt, Endo, Teva, and Allergan will have to produce the following documents:

Any suspicious order monitoring program implemented, including efforts to monitor, investigate, or report suspicious transactions between distributors and pharmacies and efforts to analyze information related to “chargeback” requests.

Any questionnaires sent to distributors regarding their anti-diversion and compliance efforts, and any responses to these questionnaires received.

Any other formal correspondence sent to or received from distributors concerning their obligations to monitor, investigate, and report suspicious orders.

Suspicious order notifications provided to DEA regarding opioid orders originating from Missouri.

Details of efforts to audit or investigate Missouri-based pharmacies, distributors, or other customers.

And distributors McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen Corporation, and Cardinal Health, Inc., will have to produce the documents listed below: