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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: 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.