The state of California wants to revoke the wholesale license for a facility run by Cardinal Health, one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributors, for failing to note a series of unusual sales of an opioid painkiller and three other tightly regulated medicines to a pharmacy.
Between 2013 and 2015, the Cardinal Health outpost in Valencia, Calif., sold increasingly large quantities of the controlled substances — including Norco, which is a mixture of acetaminophen and hydrocodone — to the pharmacy, which state officials called “red flags.” Another medicine was the Xanax anxiety pill.
The California Board of Pharmacy also maintained the distributor sold an increasingly larger volume of higher-strength Norco than the lower-strength dosage during that period to Pacific Plaza Pharmacy in Long Beach, Calif. And significantly, the higher dosage may be more subject to abuse.
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