A confidential government database of drug sales has become crucial to the nationwide opioid lawsuit in federal court in Cleveland.
The , known as ARCOS, recorded painkiller sales between manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies at a time when overdose deaths surged nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Dan Polster this year ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration to turn ARCOS records over to local governments and the pharmaceutical companies they鈥檝e taken to court.
In a May order, Polster called the data 鈥渆xtremely informative鈥� for those involved in the lawsuits.
鈥淔or example, it has allowed plaintiffs in these States to identify previously-unknown entities involved in the manufacturing and distribution of opioids,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淧laintiffs are now in the process of amending their complaints to add these entities as defendants.鈥�
But the public is barred from seeing these detailed records of pill sales. For example, ARCOS numbers are redacted in Cuyahoga County鈥檚 complaint against drug companies.
Following The Flow Of Drugs
The law requires about 1,200 drug companies to report to ARCOS, according to a recent government court filing. The system tracks sales of controlled substances, marking down the identities of the sellers, addresses, transaction date and amount sold.
鈥淒EA will be able to see the flow of all opioids, starting at the manufacturer, going down to what we鈥檇 consider the point-of-sale areas,鈥� former DEA attorney Larry Cote said, 鈥渨hich would be the pharmacies, the hospitals, the physicians鈥� offices, things like that.鈥�
Cote, who now represents clients in the pharmaceutical industry, said the government has upgraded ARCOS over the last decade.
鈥淚t was manually submitted, or on three-and-a-half [inch] floppy disks, or even on paper. So there were lots of opportunities for data entry errors, both by the registrant and by DEA,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut I would say over the last 10 years, the reliability of the ARCOS data as an investigative tool for DEA is much stronger.鈥�
Now, companies can upload data to the system electronically, Cote said.
DEA makes available to the public. Shipment totals by state and ZIP code prefix are available online. But those records don鈥檛 include the names of companies or pharmacies.
Opioid Distributions Revealed
In 2016, the Charleston Gazette-Mail obtained ARCOS records through a freedom-of-information request with the West Virginia Attorney General鈥檚 Office.
Using those records, the newspaper where overdose rates were rising.
鈥淚 was blown away when I saw it, it was extraordinary detail,鈥� reporter Eric Eyre said. 鈥淭hey had a listing of every pharmacy in the state, and how many hydrocodone and oxycodone pills鈥� they received.
for his reporting last year. The story also helped to spark a probe by the .
In March this year, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., about a pharmacy in the 3,000-person town of Williamson, W.Va.
鈥淎ccording to DEA鈥檚 ARCOS data, between 2006 and 2016, Tug Valley Pharmacy received over 10 million doses of opioids from 13 different distributors,鈥� Tonko said. 鈥淭his includes over 3 million pills just in 2009.鈥�
Tonko then addressed the acting DEA administrator at the time, Robert Patterson.
鈥淎dministrator Patterson, this is an unbelievable quantity of opioids for a pharmacy this size in a town of 3,000,鈥� he said. 鈥淒oes the DEA believe the amount of opioids this pharmacy received is excessive?鈥�
鈥淚n 2009, I would say so, sir,鈥� Patterson replied.
Government Objects To Public Disclosure
Late last year, Cincinnati and other Ohio governments sought access to ARCOS as part of their suits against drug companies.
The DEA resisted disclosing the full database. In February, it and a list of major manufacturers in each state.
In April, to turn over nine years of transaction records for six states. A month later, he told the government . Polster approved a protective order that prohibits the release of the data to the public.
The Washington Post and HD Media, the Gazette-Mail鈥檚 parent company, filed records requests with plaintiff local governments for the data.
The government and industry objected, saying disclosure of ARCOS records would expose confidential business details and could harm criminal investigations. in July.
But it鈥檚 possible that the ARCOS records could reach a broader audience next year, if lawsuits by Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Summit County .
The scheduled March 2019 trial, , 鈥渨ill be open to the public, and the evidence presented will become a matter of public record.鈥�
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