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Pain Pill Giant Purdue to Stop Promotion of Opioids to Doctors
Pain-pill giant Purdue Pharma LP will stop promoting its opioid drugs to doctors, a retreat after years of criticism that the company's aggressive sales efforts helped lay the foundation of the U.S. addiction crisis.
The company told employees this week that it would cut its sales force by more than half, to 200 workers. It plans to send a letter Monday to doctors saying that its salespeople will no longer come to their clinics to talk about the company's pain products.
"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," the company said in a statement. Instead, any questions doctors have will be directed to the Stamford, Connecticut-based company's medical affairs department.
OxyContin, approved in 1995, is the closely held company's biggest-selling drug, though sales of the pain pill have declined in recent years amid competition from generics. It generated $1.8 billion in 2017, down from $2.8 billion five years earlier, according to data compiled by Symphony Health Solutions. It also sells the painkiller Hysingla.
Also at Reuters, USA Today, The Verge, and CNN.
Previously: City of Everett, Washington Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma
OxyContin's 12-Hour Problem
South Carolina Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue
Related: Opioid Crisis Partly Blamed on a 1980 Letter to the New England Journal of Medicine
President Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a National Emergency
Study Finds Stark Increase in Opioid-Related Admissions, Deaths in Nation's ICUs
CVS Limits Opioid Prescriptions
Congress Reacts to Reports that a 2016 Law Hindered DEA's Ability to go after Opioid Distributors
Opioid Crisis Official; Insys Therapeutics Billionaire Founder Charged; Walgreens Stocks Narcan
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday February 12 2018, @06:26PM (10 children)
Everybody and their dog is suing Opioid manufacturers these days. Cities, States, - but somehow the captured FDA missed the memo.
Maybe the drug companies are starting to see these actions as eating all the profit they stand to make on the drugs.
More people are killed by opioid overdoses [drugabuse.gov] than car crashes. [nytimes.com]
The car crash rate has got every technerd in a rage to get human hands off of the steering wheel regardless of how immature the technology for doing so is.
But ask these same people about the right to kill themselves with manufactured drugs and its suddenly a freedom of choice issue (as long as treatment is free, and medical services are free, and drugs are free all paid for by taxpayers).
I think this whole business of sending salesmen to market drugs to doctors needs to be entirely rethought.
I understand, you have to get information about new drugs out to doctors somehow. But supplying doctors with seemingly never ending free samples and dubious claims and sales pitches seems the wrong way to go about it. Maybe truth in advertising should be applied to these sales calls.
(And advertising prescription drugs on national TV should stop too.)
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 12 2018, @06:33PM (5 children)
She brought home a pad of paper each page of which said "Stellazine: A Classic Antipsychotic".
My friend gave it to me because I was actually taking Stellazine at the time.
Do drug companies give t-shirts to doctors?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Monday February 12 2018, @08:17PM (3 children)
Way more than just that. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/892290 [medscape.com]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @11:09PM (2 children)
Do Free Drug Rep Lunches Sway Doctors? See What Physicians Say
Lunches and gifts from drug reps are still an issue. The Open Payments website, created under the Affordable Care Act, requires physicians to report any transaction that amounts to $10 or more, as well as items that are under $10 if the yearly total exceeds $100. The requirement that free lunches and some free samples must be reported has led half a million physicians and more than 100,000 other healthcare providers to be listed on the site.
Meals from drug reps were reported by a whopping 96% of providers who are listed on the website, according to Thomas Sullivan, who is a leading expert on the Open Payments site.
A Medscape article on this issue sparked emotional responses from many physicians. Many were insulted and adamant that catered lunches and small gifts from drug reps do not influence their prescribing habits. Others said that these freebies can cloud a physician's objectivity. A few said that they like learning about drugs from reps during catered lunches and that the lunch is a well-deserved break for their staff. Still others said that seeing reps is a total waste of time.
'Drug Rep Lunches Are Harmless'
An intensivist who isn't swayed by drug reps' lunches said, "The very idea that I would prescribe a drug I did not think was effective because someone buys me a lunch or dinner is offensive and absurd! I often learn a lot, and I like to get samples for my patients to try before they purchase."
"The fact that the rep brings lunch is not going to sway me to prescribe a drug I don't believe in, but it sometimes helps inform me about the drug, and we are lucky to find time for lunch anyway," said a general surgeon.
A psychiatrist who has received promotional pens said, "I used to use pens that had various drug names on them, and surprisingly these pens never forced my hand into writing the name of the drug that was on the pen I was using at the time."
An internist said, "I practiced medicine for 51 years and was not in any way influenced by the occasional lunch (or God forgive a pen or scratchpad). Those who make these laws had better look in the mirror. They are the ones accepting all kinds of gratuities from the army of lobbyists."
Another healthcare provider said, "I've never been swayed by a free lunch or pen. If grabbing some lunch in my office provided by a rep provides useful info as well as saving my staff a couple of bucks, who cares? I am the boss of my own ethics, not some corporation."
Drug Lunches and Small Gifts Can Be Persuasive
Among physicians who felt that lunches and small gifts indeed can influence a physician's prescribing habits, one public health physician said, "I'm sad to read comments from so many docs who don't believe they are influenced by drug-rep perks, even small gifts like pens. These are not conscious decisions we make. Encounters with drug reps and the perks they offer, even pens (maybe especially pens because we might use them frequently), get their names into our heads subconsciously, and we develop the biases unintentionally. I was pleased when learning more than a decade ago that my residency program had already (based on ample scientific evidence) set policy saying that drug reps were not allowed in clinic. Everyone who is convinced that they are immune to the influences of drug reps should read the literature on bias and then decide whether it's worth continuing the practice (for their patients' and society's sakes—we all bear the financial burden)."
A psychiatrist cautioned, "Virtually every physician says the same thing: 'I'm not influenced by free food or stuff,' yet the studies on this show that this sentiment is wrong. Even worse are the 'thought leaders' designated by the drug companies who give the talks that come with the free food. They influence their peers some, but more importantly they increase their use of the drugs that are sponsoring them by a factor of up to five times or more."
One alternative to drug reps' lunches could be just giving information about the drug, sans lunch, says a neurologist. "If catered lunches for doctors and their staff had no effect on the recipients, you can be certain the drug companies would not do it. There is no reason why a drug rep cannot give you a brief summary and some literature about a new drug in the privacy of your office. The food wasted and the plastic that comes with it are obscene."
A pain management physician has a clear policy when it comes to drug reps. "I feel bad for the reps. They have a job to do, but to me it is just not worth it. We don't see any reps, we don't accept any lunches, no samples."
"The drug companies don't pay $250 million a year on free food (that's in addition to free samples and paying off the "thought leaders" and researchers) out of the goodness of their hearts," noted a psychiatrist. "They are in it for the bottom line. I'm not against that, per se, but you have to be aware that, as a physician, you are the focus of an intense sales program."
A Nice Break for the Staff
Some physicians are pleased with the information they receive from drug reps, and they feel that free lunches are a nice perk for their hard-working staff.
A family physician said, "What is wrong with helping us, the doctors, NPs, CMAs, clerks who work long hours without breaks to help the patients? Having food brought to you, ready to eat, for your 20-minute break is a great service to a very tired body of workers. Helping us helps the patients.... Give me a break, most of us (medical professionals) cannot even remember who brought us lunch, unfortunately. The pharm companies will eventually find out that the meals are not much better than the pens in reminding of us particular drugs. We are just too busy and too tired. The food really helps us continue working without wasting time getting our own."
Eating lunch with a rep even has unexpected benefits, said another healthcare professional. "I have been very pleased with the reps who come to my office. I eat the lunch and get to know them. When there is a problem of obtaining a drug for a patient or a side effect, I call them first. They have been very helpful in solving those problems. If I don't have patients who fit the criteria for their medications, I don't use the medications. Also, the staff enjoys the perk. I'm sure there will be more "research" coming out of institutes of "higher learning" that get tons of money for "research" from big pharma telling me how horrible it is for me to get the lunch because I'm being paid off."
Yet another physician agreed. "I deal with the launch of new drugs all the time. First I read about them, then look at the data sets, then talk to my partners, then the rep comes. I like the samples and sometimes the info or help understanding the new drug. I could skip the lunch if I wanted to, but the office workers like it and the reps like it. Does it make me use the drug? I guess it might push toward the drug if we have a sample but otherwise no."
Finally, a healthcare provider who worked in a hospital described this experience: "I recall receiving pen lights used in direct patient assessments, thus benefiting the patients, and although they had a logo, it was covered by the hand when used and in pocket when not in use so never actually seen.... We were often required to attend the presentations, which cut into our lunch breaks, and if not for the free food we wouldn't have eaten at all, so patients benefited by having nourished staff rather than run-down, low-blood-sugar staff caring for them."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 12 2018, @11:37PM (1 child)
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/892290 [medscape.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NotSanguine on Tuesday February 13 2018, @12:16AM
My brother is a physician and he used to be invited (all expenses paid) to various "conferences" on the beach, ski resorts and the like at least a few times a year.
These days any compensation (including gifts, lunches, trips and the like) must be reported on the Open Payments Database [cms.gov], which has cut down on the outright bribery.
But having someone in your face, taking you to lunch, giving you samples and pushing marketing materials at you can have an effect. In fact, that's been big pharma's playbook for a very, very long time.
I think that arbitraging drug costs from outside the US would be a good first step. It would either cause the pharmaceutical companies to reduce their prices in the US or raise them around the world. If the former, Americans won't be raped as badly by these ridiculous prices. If the latter, they'd find out that they really need to charge reasonable prices or folks just won't use their drugs.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 12 2018, @10:05PM
T-Shirts I haven't seen. Doesn't mean they don't exist.
Post its, pens, notepads, letter openers, paperweights, mousepads, flashlights, and every type of promotional gewgaw under the sun. If it is an office supply and can have the drug name put on it, it's probably had it. Lunches or dinners for physician and pharmacy offices where they can speak to staff are still common.
It's still better than the "old days" when they could do things like vacations and airfares for "conferences" in resort destinations. (Ever seen "The Fugitive" movie with Harrison Ford?)
A relatively recent article on the phenomenon: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2811591/ [nih.gov]
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 12 2018, @07:56PM (1 child)
And all this while the gov is supposedly waging a war on drugs.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Monday February 12 2018, @11:12PM
Now, now, what exactly do you want to imply?
The pharma industry produces medicines, not drugs.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 12 2018, @09:29PM (1 child)
Now point to someone who actually does have all those contradictory beliefs. For example, I favor freedom of choice in each case (with little "free" treatment except in instances where there is considerable positive social value, like immunizations or prenatal care). The problem with characterizing the beliefs of amorphous blobs of people is that it is trivial to find people who disagree. Such disagreement can at a superficial glance appear to contradictory until you realize it comes from people with different life experiences and different self-interests.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2018, @04:00AM
Ban teh human drivers! They kill!
Ban teh opioids! They Kill! Unless I have a lot of pain, then it better be *really* cheap or free to me!
I gots me free healthy care! My jerb pays it all, cuz I gots me a real job writing javascript apps. Iz a real software engineer! Except the fraction of the premium automatically deducted from my paycheck. And except the US$x000/year deductible and the US$40 copays and the $30 perscriptions.
Yeah, I got it all free, bitches!!!!!
And ban teh beaners. They can code better than me, but don't tell my boss.
And keep teh wimmenz naked and prego in teh kitchen, cuz they can code better than me too. That you can tell my boss, cuz he likes it like that!