The network said only 6 percent of its funding past year came from drugmakers and that its ties to drug companies do not influence the positions it takes.
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Pharmaceutical companies and associated organizations made more than 500 donations totally almost $665,000 to New Hampshire’s state and federal candidates between 2006 and 2015.
At the state level, a coalition of companies and advocacy groups that meets regularly to discuss opioid-related issues contributed $231,110 to state candidates and parties in New Hampshire between 2006 and 2015.
“The opioid lobby has been doing everything it can to preserve the status quo of aggressive prescribing”, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, an outspoken advocate for opioid reform.
Last year, Hogan personalized the state’s drug problem by noting the loss of his own cousin to an overdose several years ago as he laid out plains to fight a problem he frequently heard state residents talk about while campaigning.
Data show some 10 million opioid prescriptions issued statewide last year, down slightly from the previous two years.
Drug companies say they are committed to solving the problems linked to their painkillers. While that bill failed, it could have boosted drug company profits because most tamper-resistant opioids have no generic equivalent.
That’s even after executives pleaded guilty to misleading the public about OxyContin’s risk of addiction in 2007 and the company agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines.
Senate leaders assigned the Georgia bill to the chamber’s Insurance and Labor committee but it never received a hearing or a vote in the full chamber.
“The lobbyists behind the scenes were killing it”, said Bernadette Sanchez, the Democratic state senator who sponsored the measure.
The report comes as Arizona voters will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana in the November election – a campaign that has also seen big-money influence by an opioid maker.
New Mexico has been working for years to curb what has now been identified by the highest levels of government as a national epidemic. Among them were longtime players considered among the most influential advocates in Santa Fe.
Candidates and parties in IN have received at least $649,000 in contributions from PFC members since 2006.
Overall, drug companies and their employees contributed almost $40,000 to New Mexico campaigns in 2012 – roughly 70 percent more than in previous years with no governor’s race on the ballot.
Pharmaceutical and physician groups have gotten behind an effort to curb abuse in several states by requiring the use of abuse-deterrent opioid formulations that can not be easily crushed and snorted. Patients must sign a treatment agreement that includes requirements of not sharing medication with others and consenting to drug testing if the doctor suspects abuse.
So far, lawmakers have introduced scores of bills on the topic, with at least 21 using almost identical language – some of it supplied by lobbyists.
According to data analyzed by The Associated Press, drugmakers that produce opioid painkillers and allied advocacy groups gave more than $500,000 to Florida candidates in 2010.
Such groups led the countercharge in Tennessee in 2014 when Republican state Rep. Ryan Williams began work to stanch the flow of prescription painkillers, alarmed by a rising number of drug-addicted babies.
Tiberi, who received the second-highest amount from the Pain Care Forum of any OH politician, has also taken stances against heroin and opioids in recent years.
One of New Mexico’s strategies calls for expanding access to naloxone, an overdose antidote.
In his veto message, Cuomo wrote that the bill’s intent was laudable, but research on the new drugs’ effectiveness was limited and they’re approximately two to three times more expensive than other opioids. “ACS CAN’s only constituents are cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones nationwide”, spokesman David Woodmansee said. Its state advocacy project is 100 percent funded by drugmakers, but he said that does not mean it is beholden to pharmaceutical interests.
“A lot of clients go from doctor to doctor, to make sure that the prescription isn’t filled by the same doctor, so it’s easier if they go and voice the same complaint to another physician and get the prescriptions filled that way”, she said.
Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo said the company wasn’t involved with Hawaii’s proposed opioid legislation. “It is imperative that we have legitimate policy debates without trying to silence those with whom we disagree”.
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As for Williams, he tried again a year ago to repeal Tennessee’s opioid prescribing law – and succeeded, even though the cancer network still opposed the repeal.
