WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, introduced the Opioid Quota Openness, Transparency and Awareness Act (Opioid QuOTA Act) on Thursday to shed light on annual quotas for prescription painkiller production and the secretive process by which the pharmaceutical companies gain approval to produce opioid painkiller, which are taking lives all across Ohio.

Despite the massive quantity of addictive opioid pain medication that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) approves for production, there is still little information about which individual companies are manufacturing prescription opioid pills, or how many.

“Drug companies and the DEA have a responsibility to make sure they aren’t overproducing opioids that end up on Ohio streets,” Brown said. “As Ohio communities continue to combat the opioid crisis, they deserve to know that the DEA is doing its job to hold drug companies accountable.”

The legislation requires the U.S. Attorney General to make available through the DEA’s website the quotas for an opioid painkiller issued to a registered manufacturer, as well as that manufacturer’s actual use of the quota.

The bill also makes available the applications submitted to the DEA by registered manufacturers requesting a particular quantity of active ingredient and year-end reports on actual quota use, which the DEA now treats as confidential.

The legislation is co-sponsored by Markey, Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, and Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire.

Last month, Brown applauded a proposal issued by the DEA to reduce the production of prescription opioids by 20 percent next year after he asked the agency to take this step.

Brown and several of his Senate colleagues met with Chuck Rosenberg, DEA acting administrator, and urged him to reduce the amount of opioid pills allowed to be manufactured and sold in the United States in 2018.