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OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reportedly exploring bankruptcy
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is exploring filing for bankruptcy to address potentially significant liabilities from thousands of lawsuits alleging the drug manufacturer contributed to the deadly opioid crisis sweeping the United States, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.
The deliberations show how Purdue and its wealthy owners, the Sackler family, are under pressure to respond to mounting litigation accusing the pharmaceutical company of misleading doctors and patients about risks associated with prolonged use of its prescription opioids.
Purdue denies the allegations, arguing that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved labels for its opioids carried warnings about the risk of abuse and misuse associated with the drugs.
Filing for Chapter 11 protection would halt the lawsuits and allow the drug maker to negotiate legal claims with plaintiffs under the supervision of a U.S. bankruptcy judge, the sources said.
No "Big Tobacco" moment for Purdue Pharma. Cut and run.
Previously: City of Everett, Washington Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma
OxyContin's 12-Hour Problem
South Carolina Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue
Tens or Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Needed to Combat Opioid Crisis?
Purdue Pharma to Cut Sales Force, Stop Marketing Opioids to Doctors
Colorado Attorney General Sues Purdue Pharma
Related: The Dutch Supply Heroin Addicts With Dope and Get Better Results Than USA
U.S. Opioid Deaths May be Plateauing
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday March 04 2019, @10:58PM (7 children)
Then why don't we give them something that does a good job of relieving pain but doesn't make them physically addicted, push them to heroin, and get them killed by overdose?
Oh, wait, I know why: Because according to US government official policy ever since the Nixon administration, cannabis (which by all appearances provides a lot of pain relief) is more dangerous than opioids. It confuses the heck out of many autocratic types, but it turns out that opioid addiction is a consequence of the War on Drugs at least as much as it is a consequence of the existence of drugs. But it was all in service to the cause of being able to lock up black people and hippies [cnn.com], so that makes it OK or something.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:17AM (5 children)
Gee. That's why we have no cannabinoids that are prescribeable. [drugabuse.gov] Absolutely none [wikipedia.org] at all [everydayhealth.com]. And of course there are no side effects to cannabis use at all [nih.gov], nosiree! Golly gosh, it's nice to have a drug that one can use with absolutely no concern as to the type of pain generated (as in where the pain is generated - by peripheral stimulation or deep nerve receptor) and just throw one thing at it.
It's a wonderful miracle drug that should be used to treat any and every conceivable problem known to medicine, and of course there are absolutely no money interests behind legalizing cannabis! What a wonderful world we live in to see a drug that just anybody can use! Why, it should be OTC because it's so harmless!
No, thanks. I'll take my common sense and ask my physician questions. I'll be concerned about addiction. And then, as I have in the past, I'll take the opioids when they are prescribed to me, as they are prescribed to me, and then I'll stop using them. (Or I'll take the Tylenol or NSAIDs that are prescribed instead). And what do you know? Just as I've been educated, I've never had physical dependence set in - just the samish very mild mental withdrawl that comes from when you stop any pain relief medicine because iit helped you feel better when you really needed it. And now you know your injuries have healed enough to come off them.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:51AM
All the long term side effects in that study you cited only affect children/teenagers. So in other words don't give drugs to kids. Seems plausible. On the other hand, opioids affect everyone, in many cases fatally.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:08AM (3 children)
You can just try aspirin, cannabis, or kratom for pain relief, and you probably won't have too many problems even if it doesn't work for you.
Try oxycodone, heroin, fentanyl, etc... not a good idea.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:24PM (1 child)
I've taken kratom for over ten years as a tonic. it NEVER was promoted for pain relief back before this opiate epidemic began. that only came about in recent years as part of a gold rush.
Knowing there is marketing that says on the website that it is a painkiller has provided no relief from pain. I still have to open the bottle of aspirin or ibuprofen just like I have always done.
I dont even know anyone in my clique that uses kratom that has experienced it relieving pain, not even as an unexpected side effect. we're all super pissed that its being promoted this way, and expect it'll get banned before long because of the unwanted attention and likely legal 'evidence' that will try to make it out to be an illegal pain relieving narcotic because everyone says so. All we need is a celebrity to mix it with some other drug and get hurt and it'll be all the fuse needed to set off that regulatory process.
It has been demonstrated to bind to receptors in the brain that also bind to opiates, but that doesn't make it an opiate in the same way that psilocin and psilociben are not SSRIs because they bind to serotonin receptors like Prozac and force regular serotonin molecules already in the brain to float around and wait for their turn to attach to the occupied receptors, preventing re-uptake.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday March 05 2019, @02:06PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitragyna_speciosa#Uses [wikipedia.org]
IDK, fam. But I haven't slept so I will defer to you for now.
Oh, and the ship has pretty much sailed for labeling it an opioid, no real evidence needed: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/02/11/0444249 [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday March 05 2019, @01:33PM
I started to lay out the more severe side effects which can occur with each of those "not too many problems" drugs. But for once I don't want to seem pedantic. Suffice to say that each of them carries risks and each one can kill you in the right circumstances. (I'll call out that, in children, the risk of Reye's syndrome makes sweet little innocent aspirin contraindicated.) Just as opioids carry risks and can kill you in the right circumstances. And who *doesn't* know that opioids don't carry heavy side effects? That, plus the known addictive potential, is why they're schedule medications. That's why you don't just "try" opioids, and there is not an ethical health practitioner who thinks writing out a morphine prescription is the same as giving an aspirin. And why you can't just go up and buy a bottle of laudanum anymore, but rather need an independent trained individual to judge that the benefits of getting an opioid outweigh the risks of it. It's why there are protocols for pain assessment and ever growing knowledge as to how the body processes pain. And why every day ethical practitioners send some people home from the ER every single day with prescriptions for Tylenol regular, and not opioids.
Now... marijuana. It does have side effects, and those who blow them off undermine the case for using it. It is currently being hyped out of proportion to what it can actually do. It would be interesting, if it were possible, to try and quantify what the proportion of drug-seekers there are for opioids and marijuana. My hypothesis is that the latter is the far more numerous category. I'm just not sure how that gets tested other than qualitatively.
Pain control is a spectrum. Cannibinoids can indeed be a tool used in that box, and that's good. But it's one tool and the people who take care of you medically do have need for the whole box. And you should pay attention if your practitioner says you should be using the hammer this time instead of the screwdriver.
(And none of what I said excuses Purdue Pharma. That they misled those who take the toolbox out to do work with it means they should indeed be penalized. But a good jobber still needs good hammers in the toolbox instead of trying to set nails with pliers.)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Entropy on Tuesday March 05 2019, @04:16AM
I think that should be legal as well. I would imagine some people respond better to cannabis, some to opiates?