SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Illinois candidates for state and federal office have received almost $3 million in contributions from the makers of prescription painkillers since 2006, according to a joint investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity that looked at industry efforts nationally to help fight limits on their drugs.
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An investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity found that drugmakers that produce opioid painkillers and their allies spent more than $880 million nationally on political contributions and lobbying over the past decade. The same organizations reinforced their influence with more than $140 million doled out to political campaigns, including more than $75 million alone to federal candidates, political action committees and parties. By comparison, a handful of groups advocating for opioid limits spent $4 million.
Members of a little-known group called the Pain Care Forum have blanketed the nation’s capital for more than a decade with messages touting the vital role of prescription painkillers, creating an echo chamber that has quietly derailed efforts to curb US consumption of the drugs. “They have been writing prescriptions for more painkillers than people need”, Cuomo said. Major opioid-makers have launched initiatives to, among other things, encourage more cautious prescribing, allow states to share databases of prescriptions and help stop drug dealers from obtaining pills. Between them, they have contacted legislators and other officials about opioid-related measures in at least 18 states.
The numbers of overdose deaths have been rising in tandem with the booming sales of the drugs.
The drug makers vow they’re combating the addiction epidemic. The groups have an array of political interests that include opioid advocacy, and their spending was eight times that of the gun lobby during the same period.
New Hampshire has had an average of 20 registered lobbyists employed by members of the Pain Care Forum each year since 2006. As a proportion of all lobbyists, Raleigh had fewer opioid industry and affiliated lobbyists deployed than most other state capitals.
Purdue Pharma, the primary company that developed and created the narcotic painkiller OxyContin, and several of its executives pled guilty in 2007 to criminal charges of purposefully misleading doctors, patients, regulators about the drug’s inherent addictive and abuse risks.
MS had the fifth-highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the nation in 2015, with 1.07 prescriptions per capita. Perdue Pharma, one of the largest opioid producers by sales, said it does not oppose policies “that improve the way opioids are prescribed” even if they result in lower sales. Five states have passed laws related to abuse-deterrent opioids and scores of bills have been introduced, with at least 21 using almost identical language that some legislators said was supplied by pharmaceutical lobbyists.
Legislation introduced in the General Assembly past year contained almost identical language as bills in 18 other states that would have required coverage of abuse-deterrent formulations of opioids-a move that would benefit pharmaceutical companies.
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Still, she said, the drug overdose number has increased, and she’s also concerned about Idaho’s opioid prescription rates.
