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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
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 12 2018, @09:01PM (1 child)
Your post makes me believe that you have missed a point, Sulla. It isn't the opioids, so much, as the hard core PUSHING of those drugs. The drugs should be available, of course. They are valuable, when they are actually needed. But, they should be pretty much out of sight, and out of mind. Any reasonably competent doctor knows that pain management is a thing. Even less than reasonably competent doctors know about pain management. When a patient is in pain, the doctor should have a decent idea what the patient needs - a mild pain killer, a stronger pain killer, a very strong pain killer, or, in extremis, hospice care to ease the patient out of this life. Any and all pharmacies should have these drugs available, and the doctor's choice should be just that - the DOCTOR'S choice.
But, that hard core pushing. Salesman comes to Doc's office, and promises exaggerated bullshit results for his drug, while at the same time offering free samples, bulk sales deals, and rewards for pushing the product. Even a moderately wealthy doctor is going to take notice if offered a free cruise, if only he pushes a few more of these pills.
Worse, the marketing brochures were published and targeted at THE PATIENTS!! Each time I go to the doctor's office, I see new brochures, telling me that I need to ask my doctor about drugs X, Y, and Z. I seldom pick up a magazine, but there are ads in the magazines. Television, ditto. Radio shows? Yep, more ads - "If you have problems with blah blah blah, ask your doctor about Preparation Zeta!"
This is all bullshit, and Purdue is belatedly admitting that fact. Drugs, kinda like most tools, should sit in the doctor's "toolbox", and when he needs them, he looks for the correct tool for the job, and uses enough of it to get the job done. The stuff shouldn't be marketed openly, like candy.
I was registered as an EMT in 1980. Part of my training included lectures about controlled drugs. (same lessons applied to over the counter uncontrolled drugs, but the threat of legal action was absent in that situation) An EMT should almost never administer narcotics, opioids, barbiturates, or other drugs. ONLY under a doctor's direction should an EMT be giving people drugs. That is not what we have today. EMT/Paramedic teams turn to opioids immediately when the get a patient. Opioids are the default. Why? Not everyone needs strong pain killers. A broken bone is pretty painful, if you attempt to use it - but in many cases, so long as you don't disturb the break, it is nearly painless. Yet - the first thing an EMT asks is, "how bad is the pain?" Stupid question - if it hurts bad, the patient is going to TELL YOU how much it hurts!! Ask a leading question, get the response you were hoping for, and you can break out the good drugs, and charge for them!
Pushers, everywhere you look. Millions, maybe billions of dollars, paid to people just to push the damned drugs.
We need to shut all of that shit down, and allow things to go back to 1980's more normal usage. You'll still get addicts, but the numbers will shrink to a small fraction of what we have today. Just take away the rewards for pushing drugs, things will have to get better.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday February 12 2018, @10:36PM
Generally speaking, EMT-B's mostly can't give the drugs - not the ones you're speaking of. An EMT-B's scope is oxygen, oral glucose, oral charcoal, aspirin, and maybe possibly nitro, albuterol, and epipen (though usually the last three are help patients to self-administer if they already have them... Benadryl is now out of style as survival rates are just as good if it is pushed in the ER). And almost always none of the above without a clear order from medical control except oxygen and aspirin. EMT-P (Paramedic) is a different question, but most Medics I've known are pretty stingy with narcotics. Dilaudid is a lot more common than morphine, and I don't know that hydrocodone is a medic drug - could be wrong, though.
And yep, EMT's ask about pain rating. It's in the manual - S is part of OPQRST. Because once in awhile people answer honestly. And once in awhile people try to be
You can shut all of it down.... but social services have only been gutted worse than the 80s as well. Maybe if we paid attention to the social dynamics of addiction and actually funded addiction treatment and other social programs to prevent such behaviors again, instead of just tossing people in jail, the problem would be better controlled.
This sig for rent.