The U.S. government on Tuesday proposed tightening rules governing the amount of prescription opioid painkillers that drugmakers can manufacture in a given year, in hopes of reining in the deadly opioid epidemic.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's proposed changes to its regulations over addictive drug manufacturing quotas were announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The plan could sharply reduce the annual production of painkillers.
"Under this proposed new rule, if DEA believes that a company's opioids are being diverted for misuse, then they will reduce the amount of opioids that company can make," Sessions said in prepared remarks.