Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by chromas on Sunday March 17 2019, @12:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the you're-still-going-to-Hell dept.

Submitted via IRC for AzumaHazuki

[Purdue Pharma] announced this week that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted fast-track status to its investigational drug nalmefene hydrochloride (HCl), an injectable, emergency treatment intended to rescue people suspected of having an opioid overdose. Purdue suggests that nalmefene HCl’s effects last longer than the similar emergency opioid antagonist naloxone. As such, the company hopes nalmefene HCl will out-compete naloxone at reversing overdoses from the most highly potent opioid, namely fentanyl, which is currently driving the alarming numbers of opioid overdose deaths. The FDA’s fast-track status will speed the development and regulatory review of the drug.

[...] In the statement this week, Purdue once again side-stepped any involvement in initiating the epidemic, focusing solely on illicit drug use. Purdue’s president and CEO, Craig Landau was quoted as describing the problem simply as “Fentanyl and illicit opioid deaths continue to increase in the United States, fueled increasingly by overdoses of this class of compounds.”

[...] Purdue announced that it doesn’t intend to make money on the new drug. “As part of Purdue’s commitment to advance meaningful solutions to address the opioid crisis, the company will work to bring forward this option with the commitment not to profit from any future sales of this drug.”

[...] Still, according to internal discussions at Purdue that were made public in a lawsuit brought by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Purdue and members of the wealthy Sackler family that owns the company had carefully researched the money-making potential of treatments aimed at reversing the epidemic.

An un-redacted section of the lawsuit describes a secret plan called Project Tango, which explored Purdue’s expansion into selling treatment options.

Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/after-pushing-addictive-oxycontin-purdue-now-pursuing-overdose-antidote/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday March 17 2019, @02:53PM

    We covered this [youtube.com] back in the 90s. It wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual though.

    We could build a factory
    And make misery
    We'll create the cure
    We made the disease

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2