Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House Democrats Want More Information On Sackler Family's Role In Opioid Epidemic
The Hill: Oversight Committee Seeks Purdue OxyContin Documents
The House Oversight and Reform Committee is seeking documents from Purdue Pharma related to how the Sackler family aggressively marketed OxyContin, a powerful painkiller that has been blamed for its role in the national opioid crisis. In a letter to Purdue’s president and CEO, Craig Landau, Oversight committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) asked for a list of all members of the Sackler family who had served on the board of Purdue or worked as company officers. (Weixel, 3/21)
Stat: House Democrats Request Purdue Pharma Opioid Documents
In a letter to Purdue CEO Craig Landau, Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee’s chairman, and Mark DeSaulnier of California asked for a list of Sacklers who had served on the board of Purdue or worked as company officers. The lawmakers are also seeking documents prepared for the Sackler family about the company’s marketing strategies for its medications and communications between company employees and family members. Purdue is fending off increasing accusations that it misled prescribers and patients about the safety of its drugs and helped ignite the addiction crisis. It is a defendant in hundreds of lawsuits from cities, counties, states, and tribes tied to the opioid epidemic.(Joseph, 3/21)
Stat: FDA Panel Chair And Consumer Advocate Petition FDA To Halt Opioid Approvals
Arguing that the Food and Drug Administration is “culpable” in creating the opioid crisis, a consumer advocacy group and a leading academic — who also chairs an FDA advisory panel — are calling for the agency to impose a moratorium on approving any new or reformulated opioids. In a Citizen’s Petition filed with the FDA, Public Citizen and Dr. Raeford Brown, a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at the University of Kentucky, maintained the agency has displayed “dangerously deficient oversight” and that none of more than two dozen opioids approved between 2009 and 2015 provided benefits that outweighed the risks. Two drugs — Opana ER and Dsuvia — were singled out as examples. (Silverman, 3/21)
