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The Four Ordinary People Who Took On Big Pharma

July 22, 2019

They tried to warn us about the dangers of OxyContin. Almost two decades later, we’re finally listening

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The Four Ordinary People Who Took On Big Pharma

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

ROANOKE, Va. — In the beginning, there were just four: the Godfather from Philly, the Army sergeant from Georgia, the professor from California and the feisty mom from Florida.

It was the early 2000s, and they usually talked over old-school computer message boards. Occasionally they gathered in person, carrying posters of their children and middle-aged spouses — all dead from OxyContin overdoses.

Today we know just how dangerous this drug is. Purdue Pharma, the company that made OxyContin, the first extended-release opioid to be widely prescribed, may finally be held to account. Some 200,000 people have died from overdosing on prescription opioids, and around 2,000 lawsuits attempting to make opioid makers and distributors pay for the damage unleashed by careless overprescribing are wending their way through the courts. But experts predict it will take more than $100 billion to turn the crisis around, and it’s hard to feel optimistic when you know the story of how long and hard these four labored in obscurity before anyone listened to them.

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Thumb image via NYT: Charlotte Kesl for The New York Times

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NY Times

We Now Have More Proof That Drug Companies Helped Cause the Opioid Epidemic

January 25, 2019

A new study links marketing for opioids to more overdose deaths

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We Now Have More Proof That Drug Companies Helped Cause the Opioid Epidemic

Friday, January 25th, 2019

We now have more proof that drug companies helped cause America’s opioid epidemic, which was associated with a record 47,600 opioid overdose deaths in 2017: A new study linked drug companies’ marketing for opioid painkillers to more overdose deaths.

Drug companies have for years spent billions of dollars to market their products to doctors, wooing physicians and other prescribers with speaking fees, free dinners, paid trips, and more. When pharmaceutical companies marketed their new opioid pills, like OxyContin, starting in the 1990s, they used many of these same tactics to convince doctors, contrary to the evidence, that the narcotics were safe and effective, persuading them to prescribe far more of the drugs.

The new study in JAMA Network Open looked at the potential link between marketing for opioids to doctors across the US and county-level opioid painkiller overdose deaths. The researchers found that where there was more marketing, there were more deaths.

…continue reading ‘We Now Have More Proof That Drug Companies Helped Cause the Opioid Epidemic’

Image via Flickr Some rights reserved by DES Daughter

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Vox

Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate

January 16, 2019

A filing in a Massachusetts lawsuit contains dozens of internal Purdue Pharma documents suggesting the family was far more involved than the company has long contended

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Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate

Wednesday, January 16th, 2019

Members of the Sackler family, which owns the company that makes OxyContin, directed years of efforts to mislead doctors and patients about the dangers of the powerful opioid painkiller, a court filing citing previously undisclosed documents contends.

When evidence of growing abuse of the drug became clear in the early 2000s, one of them, Richard Sackler, advised pushing blame onto people who had become addicted.

“We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible,” Mr. Sackler wrote in an email in 2001, when he was president of the company, Purdue Pharma. “They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.”

…continue reading ‘Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate’

Image: By John9474 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73019137

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New York Times

‘You Want a Description of Hell?’

May 5, 2016

Oxycontin’s 12-hour problem. Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin two decades ago with a bold marketing claim: One dose relieves pain for 12 hours, more than twice as long as generic medications. But OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people

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‘You Want a Description of Hell?’

Thursday, May 5th, 2016

On the strength of that promise, OxyContin became America’s bestselling painkiller, and Purdue reaped $31 billion in revenue.

But OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. OxyContin is a chemical cousin of heroin, and when it doesn’t last, patients can experience excruciating symptoms of withdrawal, including an intense craving for the drug.

The problem offers new insight into why so many people have become addicted to OxyContin, one of the most abused pharmaceuticals in U.S. history.

Image: By Psychonaught – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9003886

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LATimes

Oxycontin: How Purdue Pharma Helped Spark the Opioid Epidemic

April 19, 2016

What do conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, singer Courtney Love and deceased actor Heath Ledger all have in common? The answer, according to published reports, is that all battled addiction to OxyContin

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Oxycontin: How Purdue Pharma Helped Spark the Opioid Epidemic

Tuesday, April 19th, 2016

The answer, according to published reports, is that all battled addiction to OxyContin, an opioid pain reliever now sometimes called “rich man’s heroin” but known on the street simply as “Killer.”

The sources of the opioid epidemic are complex, but one powerful motivator has been the pursuit of profit. Purdue Pharma, which calls itself a “pioneer in developing medications for reducing pain, a principal cause of human suffering,” is the producer of OxyContin, a timed-release formulation of oxycodone, an opioid pain reliever.

OxyContin, like other prescription opioids such as hydrocodone, has become far more commonly prescribed over the past few decades. Today enough opioid prescriptions are written each year in the U.S. to give every adult American his or her own one-month supply.

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The Conversation

The Four Ordinary People Who Took On Big Pharma

The Four Ordinary People Who Took On Big Pharma

We Now Have More Proof That Drug Companies Helped Cause the Opioid Epidemic

We Now Have More Proof That Drug Companies Helped Cause the Opioid Epidemic

Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate

Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate

‘You Want a Description of Hell?’

‘You Want a Description of Hell?’

Oxycontin: How Purdue Pharma Helped Spark the Opioid Epidemic

Oxycontin: How Purdue Pharma Helped Spark the Opioid Epidemic

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