An interesting story from the New York Times explaining how an agreement between attorneys general and major drug distributors increased scrutiny on medications for A.D.H.D., addiction, anxiety and pain leaving some patients with difficulties to fill their prescription. For complete story go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/13/us/drug-limits-adhd-depression.html
Patients across the US are finding it harder to obtain drugs to treat anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and addiction a year after a $21 billion settlement imposed new requirements on companies that provide medications to pharmacies. The settlement, which was brokered between the three largest American pharmaceutical distributors and the attorneys general of 46 states, has increased scrutiny on controlled substances that have the potential to be addictive or habit-forming. Distributors are placing stricter limits on drug supplies to individual pharmacies and heavily scrutinizing their dispensing activity.
The distributors use algorithms that cap the quantities of controlled substances a pharmacy can sell in a month, and the caps appear to be more rigid, with drugs cut off with no advance notice or rapid recourse. The distributors also monitor orders that appear to mirror the practices of pill mills that blanketed the country with opioids, including dispensing certain combinations of drugs or filling orders for people who live far away. College students far from home trying to fill their Adderall prescriptions, patients in rural areas and hospice providers that rely on local pharmacies for controlled substances instead of a specialized supplier that would be exempt from the limits have all been affected.