DEA Maintains Opioid Quotas Despite Concerns Over Patient Access
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced it will keep opioid supply levels for
2025 largely unchanged, with only slight reductions in production quotas for certain pain
medications, including oxycodone (-0.137%), hydrocodone (-0.081%), and fentanyl: (-0.0025%).
Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the DEA sets annual aggregate production quotas
(APQs), which limit how much of each class of schedules I and II controlled substances may be
produced by all manufacturers each year. These quotas are intended to prevent overproduction,
shortages, and diversion. However, this marks the ninth consecutive year of opioid supply cuts,
with significant reductions since 2015—over 68% for oxycodone and nearly 73% for
hydrocodone. Despite the intent behind APQs, patients and healthcare providers are concerned
that APQs contribute to shortages of pain medication, leaving patients to endure withdrawal
symptoms, unmanaged pain, and a diminished quality of life, while doing little to reduce drug
poisoning deaths.
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