Since 2006, IL has had an average of 63 registered lobbyists each year employed by members of the Pain Care Forum, a loose coalition of drugmakers and dozens of nonprofit groups supported by industry funding.
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Amid the lobbying, lawmakers and the Cuomo administration have adopted measures to limit painkiller prescriptions and prevent “doctor shopping” to obtain extra pills to feed addictions or illicitly resell.
Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, made $2.4 billion from opioid sales a year ago alone.
DRUG DEATHS: Washington drug deaths increased about 9 percent between 2006 and 2014, with a total of 8,703 deaths during that period.
Opioids include prescription painkillers including OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet, and can be similar to heroin and morphine in their addictiveness.
Both the academy and the cancer group have been active across the country, making the case that lawmakers should balance efforts to address the opioid crisis with the needs of chronic pain patients.
“Our medical professionals and our pharmacists are truly a part of this issue”. “They are reaping enormous profits from aggressive prescribing”.
The academy, until recently known as the American Academy of Pain Management, receives 15 percent of its funding from pharmaceutical companies, according to Executive Director Bob Twillman.
Though New Hampshire’s Legislature has made tackling the state’s opioid abuse crisis a priority, lawmakers also get a share of their campaign cash from prescription drug companies. The measure is under review by the governor’s counsel, spokesman Richard Azzopardi said.
New Hampshire also had the nation’s third highest rate of drug overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2014, behind only West Virginia and New Mexico. Meanwhile, the 50-year “war on drugs” left the country ill-equipped to address the health problem of addiction relegated to police and prosecutors, who are finally beginning to change the conversation, though lawmakers have been slow and afraid to follow, he said.
Opioid drugmakers including Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, spent more than $880 million, or roughly $98 million per year, on lobbying and campaign contributions in support of the drugs.
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Prescription painkiller makers have been pushing hard to soften state laws reining in the addictive painkillers fueling a national drug crisis, but they appear to have had less success in such bids in MA. Major opioid-makers have launched initiatives to, among other things, encourage more cautious prescribing. Between them, they have contacted legislators and other officials about opioid-related measures in at least 18 states.
