(Reuters) -
A U.S. Senate panel has launched a probe of possible links between three
drugmakers and nonprofit medical groups that advocated for increasing the use
of prescription painkillers, now the target of a nationwide law enforcement
crackdown.
Senate
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat, and the panel's leading
Republican, Senator Chuck Grassley, said the drugmakers and allied groups could
be behind dubious marketing practices that have coincided with a huge jump in
deadly overdoses from painkillers known as opioids.
"These
painkillers have an important role in health care when prescribed and used
properly, but pushing misinformation on consumers to boost profits is not only
wrong, it's dangerous," Baucus said in a statement.
Baucus and
Grassley said they sent letters to drugmakers Johnson & Johnson, Endo
Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma and seven medical groups seeking documents
about their financial connections.
Officials
at the three companies were not immediately available for comment.
Lawmakers
hope to find out if medical groups have promoted misleading information about
the risks and benefits of opioid use while receiving financial support from
manufacturers.
The Senate
investigation comes at a time when federal, state and local law enforcement
officials are coming to grips with a national epidemic involving the illicit
use of prescription drugs. Their abuse has surpassed heroin and cocaine as a
source of fatal overdoses.
Opioids
were involved in 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008, more than cocaine and heroin
combined, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A crackdown
spearheaded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has included healthcare
companies including two Florida pharmacies operated by CVS Caremark Corp. and a
distribution facility owned by Cardinal Health Inc..
Privately
owned Purdue Pharma is the maker of OxyContin. Endo manufactures Percocet. Both
have been linked to addiction and overdoses.
"There
is growing evidence pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and market
opioids may be responsible, at least in part, for this evidence by promoting
misleading information," Baucus and Grassley said in their letters.
One of the
groups, the American Pain Foundation, posted a notice on its Web site saying
its board of directors voted May 3 to dissolve the organization because of
ongoing financial obligations.
The Senate
probe follows an investigation by nonprofit news website ProPublica and the
Washington Post, which found that the American Pain Foundation received 90
percent of its funding from the drug and medical device industry in 2010.
At the same
time, it produced its guides for patients, policymakers and journalists that
played down the risks of opioid painkillers and promoted the benefits.
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment