The drug companies that make prescription painkillers have deployed hundreds of lobbyists and spent millions of dollars in campaign contributions to work against legislative measures created to curb the rates of opioid abuse and prevent overdoses, according to an investigative report from The Center for Public Integrity and The Associated Press.
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Prescription opioid abuse has claimed the lives of roughly 165,000 Americans since 2000.
The findings are part of a joint investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity.
The investigation by the AP and Center for Public Integrity comes as the number of overdose deaths from prescription painkillers has soared, claiming the lives of 165,000 people in the USA since 2000.
Painkillers are among the most widely prescribed medications in the USA, but pharmaceutical companies and allied groups have a multitude of legislative interests beyond those drugs. But their steady presence in state capitals means they’re poised to jump in quickly on any debate that affects them.
And the industry and its allies have not been alone in fighting restrictions on opioids.
Purdue Pharma – the maker of OxyContin and one of the largest opioid producers by sales – gives to both groups.
PRESCRIPTIONS: Prescriptions for opioid painkillers are common in OR, with more than 3.14 million prescriptions issued in 2015.
Heavy-duty prescription painkillers like hydrocodone and OxyContin are a big part of medicine in OR, with doctors prescribing them at a rate that almost reached one per person a year ago.
The drugmakers and allied advocacy groups – such as the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network – also employed an annual average of 1,350 lobbyists in state capitals from Olympia to Tallahassee during that span, when opioids’ addictive nature came under increasing scrutiny.
“The lobbyists behind the scenes were killing it”, said Bernadette Sanchez, the Democratic state senator who sponsored the measure. Purdue said it supports a range of advocacy groups, including some with differing views on opioids. The state’s drug deaths increased 18 percent between 2006 and 2014, with a total of 5,007 during that period.
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A loosely affiliated group of drugmakers and nonprofits in the Pain Care Forum had 206 lobbyists in Albany and donated $288,500 to state candidates a year ago, giving $3.7 million over the past decade. Her office has worked to teach coroners the signs of drug overdose from opioids and other drugs, and encouraged the local officials to include the type of drug involved in the overdose on the death certificate. 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. “The doctors’ intentions are honorable”, Dixon said.
