Cardinal Health, Inc. is a Fortune 500 health care services company based in Dublin, Ohio. The firm specializes in distribution of pharmaceuticals and medical products, serving more than 60,000 locations. The firm also manufactures medical and surgical products, including gloves, surgical apparel and fluid management products. In addition, it operates the nation’s largest network of radiopharmacies. On December 10, 2013, it was announced that Cardinal Health would team up with CVS Caremark, which would form the largest generic drug sourcing operation in the United States. The venture will begin in July 2014.
Founded in 1971 as Cardinal Foods by Robert D. Walter, it was initially a food wholesaler. After acquiring the Bailey Drug Company in 1979, it began wholesaling drugs as Cardinal Distribution, Incorporated. Following the introduction of the company on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1983 it began a long string of acquisitions and mergers. It is now traded on the NYSE under symbol (CAH). As of April, 2010, it was ranked 17th on the Fortune 500 list with 2009 annual revenue of over $99 billion. The firm employs more than 30,000 people worldwide.
In 2008 Cardinal Health agreed to pay $34 million in civil penalties to settle DEA allegations that it failed to report suspicious orders of hydrocodone, a potent painkiller. The fine followed a 10-month DEA suspension of a Lakeland, FL distribution facility and two others in New Jersey and Washington.
On February 2, 2012, the Drug Enforcement Administration again suspended the license of the firm's Lakeland, Florida distribution center to distribute controlled substances on charges that it had allowed four Florida pharmacies to purchase excessive amounts of controlled substances, in particular oxycodone. As an example of what the DEA is trying to halt: According to the Justice Department, "Last year Cardinal shipped enough oxycodone to pharmacies in Sanford, Florida, that could supply a population eight times its size... Sanford has a population of 53,000 and the supply would support 400,000" Cardinal obtained a restraining order against the suspension so they could continue to sell painkillers in mass-quantities to the targeted pharmacies, but the suspension was upheld on Feb 29 by a Federal district court because the court agreed with the DEA that Cardinal's activities represented an "imminent danger to the public."
The company asserts that it has blocked two of the pharmacies, (Brooks Pharmacy. in Bonita Springs, Florida and Gulf Coast Medical in Panama City, Florida), and notified the corporate owners of the two pharmacies that were part of national chains, two CVS stores in Sanford, Florida. In 2010, the Florida State Medical Examiner's Office recorded 4,048 deaths from prescription opioids, up 24% from 2009.
Source: Wikipedia.
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