2/12/2018

DRUGS/LOBBYING/PHARMA: “Five manufacturers of opioid painkillers gave nearly $9 million between 2012 and 2017 to patient advocacy groups and other nonprofits that have a history of promoting opioid use, according to a probe by the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Those same firms gave more than $1.6 million to doctors and other individuals affiliated with the groups between 2013 and the present, according to a probe conducted by Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office. The investigators received the payment information from the companies and groups after requesting it last year… The nonprofit groups, which include patient-advocacy organizations and professional societies for doctors who treat pain, said they aim to improve pain treatment, and denied corporate influence on their work…
More than 80% of the $8.9 million in drug-company payments to the groups came from two firms—Purdue Pharma LP, which sells the painkiller OxyContin, and Insys Therapeutics Inc., seller of the painkiller Subsys, according to the report. Most of the rest came from Depomed Inc., which sold the opioid Nucynta until late last year, and Johnson & Johnson , which sells the opioid Duragesic. Mylan NV, which sells generic opioid painkillers, contributed the least—$20,250—over the six-year period.”

-Jeanne Whalen, “Drugmakers Funded Groups Promoting Opioid Use, Senator’s Report Finds,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 12, 2018 09:12pm