The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union, wrote a letter calling on McKesson CEO John Hammergren to give back millions of dollars in incentive pay, according to The Washington Post.
In the letter, Teamsters General Secretary and Treasurer Ken Hall said McKesson's board of directors should use its "executive clawback policy to recover all or a significant portion of CEO Hammergren's incentive pay" from the past year. In addition, he urged the board to cancel incentive pay for other McKesson executives.
The four-page letter claims McKesson and Mr. Hammergren played a role in the opioid crisis. Mr. Hall cited McKesson's 2008 and 2015 settlements with the Drug Enforcement Administration regarding "accusations that it did not prevent diversion to the black market of narcotic painkillers it supplied to retailers," according to The Washington Post.
In a statement sent to Becker's, McKesson said that "as one of many pharmaceutical distributors in the U.S., McKesson has strong programs and processes in place to stop the shipment of controlled substances to pharmacies with suspicious ordering patterns. ...every controlled substance order we receive — both orders that are delivered and orders that are deemed suspicious and stopped — is reported to the DEA."
As for the Teamsters' involvement in the issue, Mr. Hall said the union's pension and benefit funds possess more than $100 billion in McKesson assets.