Just say no….
Purdue Pharma LP, the maker of OxyContin, said on February 10, 2018 that it would stop promoting opioids to doctors.
But not before giving $4.15 million to 12 advocacy groups from 2012 to 2017, according to a U.S. Senate report released by Democratic Senator Clair McCaskill of Missouri. The groups include patient advocacy organizations and medical professional societies. The report said five opioid manufacturers, including Purdue, paid more than $10 million to the groups.
Purdue’s statement said it had eliminated more than half its sales staff the previous week and will no longer send sales representatives to doctors’ offices to discuss opioid drugs. The remaining sales staff of about 200 will focus on other medications.
The OxyContin pill, approved in 1995, is a time-release version of oxycodone. Some users figured out they could crush, snort or inject the pill and get a heroin-like high. The company reformulated the pill in 2010 to make it harder to crush and stopped selling the original form of the drug.
The company and three executives pleaded guilty in 2007 and agreed to pay more than $600 million for misleading the public about the risks of OxyContin.
The Senate report said Insys Therapeutics Inc, which markets the fentanyl-based cancer pain drug Subsys, gave $3.15 million to U.S. Pain Foundation and others, ranking No. 2 in donations to the advocacy groups. Last October, Insys’ founder, John Kapoor, Ph.D., was arrested charged with using bribes and fraud to cause the illegal distribution of the fentanyl spray. Kapoor has pleaded not guilty.
McCaskill said the advocacy groups issued guidance promoting opioids for chronic pain and lobbied against laws to curb their use. “These financial relationships were insidious, lacked transparency, and are one of many factors that have resulted in arguably the most deadly drug epidemic in American history.”
The report said the advocacy groups also received $1.07 million from Depomed Inc, $465,142 from Johnson & Johnson and $20,250 from Mylan NV. Physicians affiliated with the organizations received $1.6 million.
