Here on planet Earth, Drug Producers and Drug Distributors have been sued for Billions of $$$$$ for their roll in promoting Opioid use to doctors
<<<<<<<< And how do pharmaceutical companies prescribe painkillers? >>>>>>>>>>
Justice Department Announces Global Resolution of Criminal and Civil Investigations with Opioid Manufacturer Purdue Pharma and Civil Settlement with Members of the Sackler Family Wednesday, October 21, 2020 DOJ
"The abuse and diversion of prescription opioids has contributed to a national tragedy of addiction and deaths, in addition to those caused by illicit street opioids,” said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen. “With criminal guilty pleas, a federal settlement of more than $8 billion, and the dissolution of a company and repurposing its assets entirely for the public’s benefit, the resolution in today’s announcement re-affirms that the Department of Justice will not relent in its multi-pronged efforts to combat the opioids crisis.”
"This settlement resolves allegations that, in 2012, the Named Sacklers knew that the legitimate market for Purdue’s opioids had contracted. Nevertheless, they requested that Purdue executives recapture lost sales and increase Purdue’s share of the opioid market. The Named Sacklers then approved a new marketing program beginning in 2013 called “Evolve to Excellence,” through which Purdue sales representatives intensified their marketing of OxyContin to extreme, high-volume prescribers who were already writing “25 times as many OxyContin scripts” as their peers, causing health care providers to prescribe opioids for uses that were unsafe, ineffective, and medically unnecessary, and that often led to abuse and diversion."
"The government alleged that Purdue promoted its opioid drugs to health care providers it knew were prescribing opioids for uses that were unsafe, ineffective, and medically unnecessary, and that often led to abuse and diversion. For example, Purdue learned that one doctor was known by patients as “the Candyman” and was prescribing “crazy dosing of OxyContin,” yet Purdue had sales representatives meet with the doctor more than 300 times. It also resolves the government’s allegations that Purdue engaged in three different kickback schemes to induce prescriptions of its opioids. First, Purdue paid certain doctors ostensibly to provide educational talks to other health care professionals and serve as consultants, but in reality to induce them to prescribe more OxyContin. Second, Purdue paid kickbacks to Practice Fusion, as described above. Third, Purdue entered into contracts with certain specialty pharmacies to fill prescriptions for Purdue’s opioid drugs that other pharmacies had rejected as potentially lacking medical necessity." https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-global-resolution-criminal-and-civil-investigations-opioid#:~:text=The%20Named%20Sacklers%20then%20approved,as%20their%20peers%2C%20causing%20health
Drug Company Compensated Physicians Role in Causing America’s Deadly Opioid Epidemic: When Will We Learn? Missouri Medicine Journal 2016 Jul-Aug
"Because of the fear of addicting patients, physicians seldom prescribed opiates until the mid-1980s and early 1990s. At that time “medical experts” and “thought leaders” led by the neurologist and pain specialist Russell Portenoy, MD, proclaimed that the risks of addiction to opioids were minimal and that not treating pain was cruel and even amounted to medical negligence. Pain was to be considered the fifth vital sign.1 To this day in most American hospitals nurses on their daily rounds ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of one to ten and then may administer a narcotic accordingly."
Follow the Money "In attempting to understand the role physicians and researchers with financial conflicts played in creating the drug problem it is essential to follow the money. Dr. Portenoy and his pain center have received millions of dollars of funding from many pharmaceutical companies including Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of oxycontin, as well numerous other well known drug manufacturers such as Mallinckrodt, Wyeth, Baxter, and Pfizer. Portenoy has admitted to having financial relationships with more than a dozen companies most of which produce opioid pain killers." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6139931/
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