Just this week, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine followed Mississippi's lead and filed a suit against five "Big Pharma" companies for their involvement in the opiate epidemic that has been ravaging our nation. The companies in question are Purdue Pharma, Endo Health Solutions, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit, Allergan, and Teva Pharmaceutical's Cephalon unit. These companies are the producers behind OxyContin, Percocet, Opana, Duragesic, and many others.
CNBC quoted some of DeWine's statistics stating that "In 2014 alone, pharmaceutical companies spent $168 million through sales reps peddling prescription opioids to win over doctors with smooth pitches and glossy brochures that downplayed the risks" of the medicines." The author continued with another statement made by DeWine citing that "2.3 million people in Ohio, or about a fifth of the state's population, were prescribed opioids." CNBC also shared some sales and addiction statistics that stated that "Sales of prescribed opioids - including oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone — almost quadrupled in the U.S. between 1999 and 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contributing to a more than quadrupling of deaths from prescription opioids in that same period. Almost 2 million Americans either abused or were dependent on prescription opioid painkillers in 2014, according to the CDC."
Evidence of these misinterpretations of information and risks can be seen when reviewing Purdue Pharma's promotion of Oxycontin. Purdue used a series of different promotions including symposiums for prescribers, targeting physicians with large numbers of chronic pain patients, creating a rich bonus system for sales reps, coupon systes for patients, and branded promotional merchandise for healthcare professionals. Purdue used these aggressive tactics to open the floodgates for prescribing opiates for non-cancerous pain. However, what really sealed the deal was the way that sales reps were trained to pitch the drug to providers. These representatives were taught to regurgitate a specific set of "facts" when pushing for sales. These statistics quoted included an inadequate study done by Porter and Jick, which did not sufficiently study the long term effects of opiates on patients. Using this and a couple of other medical journals, OxyContin sales reps were told to relay that the risk of patient addiction was "less than one percent".
As a board-certified pharmacy technician and pre-pharmacy student, I can stand behind Mike DeWine's decision for legal action wholeheartedly. I think the evidence is very clear that opiate companies used shady marketing techniques to allow an explosion of prescription painkillers which, in turn, has plagued our country with an addiction to opiates. Prescription opiates are considered relatively safe since the treatment is supposed to be closely monitored by prescribers but even with abuse-deterrent mechanisms in place, "unintentional overdose deaths from prescription opioids surpassed those from heroin and cocaine nationwide (NCBI)." Prescription opiates also leave the door open for addiction to other, illicit opiates. I think that it is time that Big Pharma finally takes some responsibility for it's role in our nation's opiate epidemic.
