Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Pressure Mounts From All Sides, Purdue May Be Cutting Back On Marketing For Opioids
ProPublica/NPR: Opioid Marketing Payments To Doctors Fall, ProPublica Reports
The past two years have been a time of reckoning for pharmaceutical manufacturers over their role in promoting opioid drugs that have fed a national epidemic. Lawsuits and media reports have accused Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, of aggressively marketing the powerful narcotic even after it knew the drug was being misused. Prosecutors have charged the founder of Insys Therapeutics and several of the company's sales representatives and executives for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to bribe doctors to use its fentanyl spray for unapproved uses. State and local governments have sued a host of drug makers, alleging they deceptively marketed opioids and seeking to recoup what it costs to treat people addicted to the drugs. (Ornstein and Grochowski Jones, 6/28)
The Wall Street Journal: FDA Presses Internet Companies On Illegal Online Opioid Sales
Federal regulators are dialing up pressure on big internet companies to do more to prevent online sales of opioids as industry leaders met with government officials at a summit meeting Wednesday. Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb said the “easy availability of opioids online” has become “a major public health concern.” “As all of us here know well, illegal online pharmacies, drug dealers, and others are increasingly using the internet to further their illicit distribution of opioids, where their risk of detection and the likelihood of repercussions are seen as significantly reduced,” Dr. Gottlieb said. (McKinnon, 6/27)
And in other news on the crisis —
The Associated Press: US Hospitals Grapple With Prolonged Injected Opioid Shortage
There is another opioid crisis happening in the U.S., and it has nothing to do with the overdose epidemic: Hospitals are frequently running out of widely used injected painkillers. Manufacturing shortages are forcing many doctors and pharmacists to sometimes ration injected opioids, reserving them for the patients suffering most. Other patients get slower-acting or less effective pain pills, alternatives with more side effects or even sedation. (Johnson, 6/27)
The Oregonian: Oregon Department Of Justice Moves Toward Suing Opioid Manufacturer Purdue Again
Oregon is prepared to sue the maker of OxyContin a second time, over what the attorney general's office says are 10 years of violations to a state settlement. A notice that gave Purdue Pharma 30 days to comply with the terms of a 2007 judgment expires Thursday, leaving Oregon free to take the pharmaceutical giant to court. The settlement called for Purdue Pharma to end certain marketing practices tied to OxyContin, one of the most commonly prescribed opioids in the U.S., and pay $19.5 million under a multistate judgment. (Harbarger, 6/27)
Reveal: This Walgreens Gets 5 Times US Average Of Oxycodone. The DEA Is Asking Why
A Northern California branch of one of America’s biggest pharmacies has come under Drug Enforcement Administration scrutiny for ordering unusually large amounts of the highly addictive opioids hydrocodone and oxycodone, according to court documents obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. An affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in California on March 2 shows that a Walgreens in Chico has over the course of three years purchased around twice the amount of both drugs as the next-largest buyer in its area. (Duncan, 6/27)
