NewsPoints Former DEA official helped pharma company get drug quota increase, says watchdog

According to the US Justice Department's internal watchdog, a former senior official at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) improperly gave preferential treatment to a pharmaceutical company that was seeking a quota increase so it could manufacture more drugs, as reported in U.S. News & World Report.

In an investigative summary, Inspector General Michael Horowitz stated that the unnamed official "misused" his or her official position by giving preferential treatment to the company and pressured subordinates to approve the quota increase.

The increase was requested by a second unnamed former DEA official who worked for the drugmaker in question, according to the report.

The former DEA official at the heart of the probe also apparently planned to work for the pharmaceutical company upon retirement and "lacked candor" with the DEA's Office of Chief Counsel in disclosing those plans, Horowitz's report said.

"The senior DEA official misused the senior official's position at DEA by giving preferential treatment to a request by the pharmaceutical company that employed the former DEA official," the report says, adding that "the senior DEA official pressured and directed subordinates to approve the request."

The inspector general's report does not identify the company at issue, or whether the former senior official ultimately went to work there.