Nearly a year after a sweeping opioid settlement imposed new requirements on the companies that provide medications to pharmacies, patients across the United States are having difficulty obtaining drugs to treat many conditions, including anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and addiction.
The $21 billion settlement, which was brokered between the three largest American pharmaceutical distributors and the attorneys general of 46 states, was designed in part to correct practices that had flooded the country with prescription painkillers, contributing to the nation’s opioid crisis. Distributors are placing stricter limits on drug supplies to individual pharmacies and heavily scrutinizing their dispensing activity.
But the oversight is not limited to opioids: It applies to an array of drugs known as controlled substances that have the potential to be addictive or habit-forming, such as muscle relaxants or medications like Xanax, used to treat anxiety and panic disorders.
As a result, tens of thousands of drug orders have been canceled, disrupting the flow of medication nationwide as the distributors — powerful but little-known wholesalers — navigate the line between implementing safeguards and making necessary drugs available.
Ilisa Bernstein, chief executive of the American Pharmacists Association, said that the controls, which took effect in July, had created “havoc” for some pharmacies.
“They have patients coming in to get medication, and they can’t have it,” Ms. Bernstein said. “It’s disrupting patient care.”
