The stories demonstrated the ways that pharmaceutical companies use their clout in Congress, with the DEA and in legal proceedings to evade or reduce their responsibility for the prescription drug abuse epidemic, which has killed about 200,000 people this century. Numerous findings include: Congress, at the behest of drug distributors, passed a law at the height of the epidemic to weaken DEA; an initial version of the law was written by a drug industry lawyer who previously worked for the DEA; drug companies routinely hire the best DEA personnel to weaken regulatory and enforcement efforts; DEA attorneys and US prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges and severe civil penalties against drug distributor McKesson over the objections of investigators; Mallinckrodt, a drug manufacturer, outmaneuvered DEA lawyers and prosecutors in a ground-breaking civil case.
Judges’ comments: The reporters documented how a few members who received big contributions from the pharmaceutical industry quietly knee-capped the DEA by changing a few words in the law, while their colleagues were oblivious to the implications. The reporters showed that the bill was written by a drug company lawyer who was a former DEA official, one of many regulators who went over to the private sector.
The 18-month reporting project involved 20 public-record requests, which were delayed so long the journalists filed suit in federal court. The unearthed documents and on-the-record interviews provided fuel for hundreds of lawsuits against the companies by state attorneys general, local jurisdictions, shareholder activists and others.
What made this project so powerful was the way it combined the strengths of print and TV. By joining forces, two influential media outlets were able to tell the stories in complementary ways and amplify the impact.