Documents Reveal Just How Involved Sackler Family Was In Aggressive OxyContin Marketing Techniques
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has drawn blame for its role in igniting the opioid crisis in the country. Now new documents show how the family that owns the company was involved with the decisions to aggressively push opioids on to patients in the years leading up to the epidemic, even though Purdue seeks to portray the family members as removed from day-to-day operations.
The New York Times:
Sacklers Directed Efforts To Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate
Members of the Sackler family, which owns the company that makes OxyContin, directed years of efforts to mislead doctors and patients about the dangers of the powerful opioid painkiller, a court filing citing previously undisclosed documents contends. When evidence of growing abuse of the drug became clear in the early 2000s, one of them, Richard Sackler, advised pushing blame onto people who had become addicted. “We have to hammer on abusers in every way possible,” Mr. Sackler wrote in an email in 2001, when he was president of the company, Purdue Pharma. “They are the culprits and the problem. They are reckless criminals.” (Meier, 1/15)
In other national health care news —
The Hill:
Dem Chairman Cummings Meets With Trump Health Chief To Discuss Drug Prices
House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) met with Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar on Tuesday to discuss bipartisan ways to work together to lower drug prices. “He pledged that he wants to work with me,” Cummings told reporters after the meeting. “We have similar goals but the main goal is bringing down the price of drugs. We agreed that we would do everything we could to work together.” (Sullivan, 1/15)
NPR:
Veterans Claiming Illness From Burn Pits Lose Court Fight
A decade-long fight ended at the Supreme Court this week, when justices refused to hear an appeal by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who say that toxic smoke from burn pits made them sick. Hundreds of those veterans had sued the military contracting giant KBR, Inc., but lost first in U.S. district court and then again last year in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. The 4th Circuit said KBR was under U.S. military direction when it burned tires and medical waste next to soldiers' barracks, and can't be held liable. (Lawrence, 1/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Lawsuits Challenge Rules Limiting Who Can Perform Abortions
Abortion-rights activists concerned about the shrinking number of abortion providers are mounting court challenges to longstanding state laws that forbid anybody but doctors to perform the procedure. Lawsuits pending in at least nine states are seeking to strike down statutes that make it a crime for clinicians such as highly trained nurses and midwives to provide early-term abortions. Taken together, the cases represent the strongest push by abortion-rights groups to build upon a recent Supreme Court decision that put more of a burden on states to justify the medical benefit of abortion regulations limiting women’s access. (Gershman, 1/15)
Reuters:
Walmart Opts To Leave CVS Partnerships Over Pricing Dispute
CVS Health Corp said on Tuesday Walmart Inc is leaving its network for commercial and Medicaid prescription drug plans after the two companies failed to agree on pricing. CVS said the dispute would not impact Walmart's presence in its Medicare Part D pharmacy network, which according to Cowen & Co analyst Charles Rhyee was a bright spot as it represented a larger chunk of CVS' scripts. (1/15)
The Associated Press:
Senators Ask FDA To Update Rules On Certain Pot Products
Oregon's two senators on Tuesday urged the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to update federal regulations to permit interstate commerce of food products containing a key non-psychoactive ingredient of cannabis. The appeal by Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley came after Congress legalized the production and sale of industrial hemp and hemp derivatives, including cannabidiols, known as CBD. Wyden and Merkley had been behind a hemp provision that Congress passed and was included in the 2018 Farm Bill. (1/15)