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[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.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 17 2019, @04:53PM
The drug, if properly used, *may* be preferable to alternatives. Perhaps. But the marketing lied about the addictive potential, and bribed doctors to over-prescribe it. The bribe was so that the doctors wouldn't question how safe the drug was, and so that they would prefer it over alternatives.
FWIW, I suspect the processed drug is more addictive and less effective than raw opium, but I don't think I'll try either, and certainly don't want to get addicted to either, so suspicion is all I've got.
So, yes, their actions were immoral. The top management of the company should all be tortured daily for six months, but to alleviate the "cruel" punishment aspect, they should be allowed to take all the oxy pills of their commercial formulation that they desire. Maybe make that a year. Or two. (Some people have chronic pain that no current treatment will cure.)
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