Pfizer Agrees to Support CDC Opioid Guideline
https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2017/8/4/pfizer-agrees-to-support-cdc-opioid-guideline
By Pat Anson, Editor
Since its release in March 2016, the CDC’s opioid prescribing guideline has had a chilling effect on chronic pain patients, as doctors, regulators, states and insurance companies have adopted the CDC’s recommendations as policies or even laws. As a result, it has become harder for many pain patients to get opioids prescribed or even find a doctor willing to treat them.
Now one of the world’s largest drug makers has agreed not to make any statements that conflict with the CDC guideline and to withdraw support for anyone who does.
In an agreement signed last month with the Santa Clara County, California Counsel’s Office, Pfizer promised to abide by strict standards in its marketing of opioids and to “not make or disseminate claims that are contrary to the ‘Recommendations’ of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.”
That voluntary guideline only discourages primary care physicians from prescribing opioids for chronic pain, but has been widely implemented by many doctors, regardless of specialty.
Pfizer also agreed to stop funding patient advocacy groups, healthcare organizations or any charities that make “misleading statements” about opioids that are contrary to the CDC guidelines. Pfizer notified Pain News Network by email today that it was rescinding a charitable grant recently awarded to PNN. Pfizer’s had been a sponsor of PNN’s newsletter for the past year.
“This agreement is an important step in ensuring that doctors and patients in California receive accurate information about the risks and benefits of these highly addictive painkillers,” Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said in a press release. “Such information is essential to curbing — and ultimately ending — the opioid epidemic plaguing Santa Clara County, the State of California, and many parts of the country.”
Santa Clara County was not pursuing any legal action against Pfizer, although it had filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and four other opioid manufacturers, alleging that they falsely downplayed the risks of opioid painkillers and grossly exaggerated their benefits.
“We applaud Pfizer’s willingness to work with us to combat the dramatic rise in opioid misuse, abuse, and addiction in California and the corresponding rise in overdose deaths, hospitalizations, and crime,” said Danny Chou, an Assistant County Counsel for the County of Santa Clara. “Pfizer has set a stringent standard that we expect all other opioid manufacturers to meet.”
Opioids make up only a tiny part of Pfizer’s business. The company sells just one opioid painkiller, an extended release medication called Emedea.
As part of its agreement with Santa Clara County, Pfizer promised not to market opioids off-label for conditions they are not approved for and said it would “make clear” in its marketing that there are no long-term studies on the safe use of opioids.
Interestingly, the CDC guideline suggests the use of gabapentin and pregabalin as alternatives to opioids for treating pain. Pfizer makes billions of dollars annually selling both of those drugs, under the brand names Neurontin and Lyrica.
In recent years, Pfizer has paid $945 million in fines to resolve criminal and civil charges that it marketed Neurontin off-label to treat conditions it was not approved for. Neurontin is only approved by the FDA to treat epilepsy and neuropathic pain caused by shingles, but it is widely prescribed off label to treat depression, ADHD, migraine, fibromyalgia and bipolar disorder. According to one estimate, over 90% of Neurontin sales are for off-label uses.
Lyrica is approved by the FDA to treat diabetic nerve pain, fibromyalgia, post-herpetic neuralgia caused by shingles and spinal cord injuries. Lyrica is also prescribed off-label to treat a wide variety of other chronic pain conditions, including lumbar spinal stenosis, the most common type of lower back pain in older adults.
Since I don’t receive any money from Pfizer – except for some dividends from some Pfizer stock that I have owned for nearly 10 yrs.. I can say whatever I think about this announcement..
First of all … Santa Clara County, California has a population of about 1.9 million or about 0.5% of the population of the USA… which means that this county prosecutor in CALF has been able to impose his will, belief, opinions on the other 99.5% of the country’s population…
WHAT A EGO.. and clearly demonstrates that our judicial system has gotten totally out of control. Just like recently AG Session wanted to be granted the power to allow him to impose his opinions on the entire population … especially when it came to the war on drugs.
The CDC ( Center of Disease Control) produced these “guidelines” and some believe that the CDC did not have the legal authority to do so… Up until the release of these guidelines.. the CDC primary focus on communicable diseases and vaccines that help prevent communicable diseases and/or establish treatment plans to deal with communicable disease.
It has been stated that the studies/data that the CDC based it guidelines on were of the poor quality… with 1= excellent and 4 = unreliable and most of the studies they used had a rating of 3 or 4 and they refused to accept any anecdotal evidence of the benefit of opiates used long term in helping pts manage their chronic pain.
The head of the CDC at the time – Tom Frieden – was quick to make public statements pointing out once these guidelines were released that they were merely GUIDELINES and did not bear the weight of law.
However, many entities – like the VA – was quick to adopt some of the most strict portion of the CDC guidelines and ignored some of the exceptions in order to properly manage the pain of chronic pain pts with more severe pain.
It amazes me that both the FDA and Pfizer does not recommend the use of one of Pfizer’s medications in ESI and all too many pts have been inflicted with Arachnoiditis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnoiditis and meningitis and no one seems to be interested in this very popular procedure that may be considered insurance fraud and causing insurance companies expending untold dollars treating Arachnoiditis… which is both incurable, extremely painful and costly to treat.
It would seem that our judicial system is more interested in the loss of life from people abusing illegal substances than those pt losing their quality of life from physicians “pushing” procedures using medications in an unproved methodologies.
Filed under: General Problems
Tab. I do not believe ANY lawyer will stand up for the chronic pain patients via a federal lawsuit. The government has too many resources. I wish a lawyer would stand up, but just do not believe this is going to happen any time soon.
More hell for us pain patients and it seems like it goes from bad to worse. I read online there could possibly be a federal class action- any one that comes against please join up – we need a judge to hear this case because I am sure we would get the help we so much deserve!
To all it concerns, please feel free to publicly post and use this my story of this horrible malady and the the Hell the now uninformed Public and some of the Media are putting us legitimate Chronic Pain Sufferers through! It is no more than National emotional Abuse ( and border line Domestic Emotional Terrorism )!on a scale with only Biblical proportions!To the Editor and Associates I have taken this opportunity to share my heartbreaking story in hopes these witch hunting Opiate ill informed skeptics will read and understand that we as Millions Of Legitimate Chronic Pain Sufferers would have no life without Medically prescribed Opiates by a physicians care and strictly monitored monthly urine and blood test. Please remember that An Opinion Before A Thorough Investigation Is The Epitome Of Ignorance! And that a little more compassion from the Medical Field and its representatives could have saved my beautiful Stepdaughters life. Let me say this! A person who has a addictive personality will abuse anything that helps them feel better. I have taken Oxycontin for 12 years , I have had 20 major surgery’s in 9 years. I have so much physical pain I can not even get out of bed with out pain meds and when I run out I run out and just lay in bed praying the Lord relieve me of this horrible condition and I pray God you pain med skeptics never go through what I go through everyday of my life when the only thing you have to do is threaten what help I get, Shame on them! There will always be drug abuse and as the so called war on drugs has failed all this will! All you do is stoke and aid the drug pushers business to knew heights in the Black Market of Heroin while trying to deprive folks as me to this horrible movement! My Stepdaughter committed suicide 4 years ago because of being treated like a drug addict by her family and doctors when all along she suffered from Lupus and Fibromyalgia which I believe was brought on by a deadly car crash at 18 , she told me between that which I was being put through and what they were putting her through she was not going to be able to live her life in such a hell brought on by people like the Biased Uniformed Skeptics that are on a witch hunt to out law Opiates and pain meds that give us some sort of a life . As a retired Police officer and worked indirectly close to the DEA, you people do not have a clue how thrilled you are making the illegal opiate trade and think of my Late Stepdaughter as you continue on with this 2017 Version of the ( 1940s Propaganda Film named REEFER MADNESS )movement to outlaw opiates! Just like the slaughter of children at Sandy Hook if there would have just been gun laws , my God they were Gun Laws , the guns that murdered all those 20 children were all registered and owned by a school teacher! You fight Drug Addiction in Elementary education by teaching all children the dangers of Booze and Tobacco which if these witch hunters want for us to know the real truth but they do not. I miss my Stepdaughter so much and some of us will continue on the fight to protect our right to feel better and function without fear of these witch hunters trying to convince us to commit suicide . And they are trying to do exactly THAT and are now being successful in this under the table practice of Human Genocide!
Hi Wayne, I can totally relate to how you feel and what you’re saying. As a matter of fact last week I spoke to a krem2 newsroom employee in which I had the opportunity at length to discuss and detail which you spoke of in your comment. This journalist gave me a bit of hope saying I needed to submit my information by email. I completed that email today. In my email I wrote about the federal government and the bodies of government intentionally omitting information that cause direct harm to only Chronic pain patients.I put it all on the table especially the part that caught my concern on your post, I am trying to be a voice that can only obtain a platform to go after the bodies of government responsible for supplying info to the federal government for domestic terrorism as outlined in the US Patriot act they fall into that category more than several instances of What constitutes domestic Terrorism The lady that I spoke to in the newsroom agreed with me that the information coming out is pretty one sided and I had explained to her reason why is 1 sided because the federal government is picking on a demographic that is unable to be heard you to the fact out we cannot gather how canst March or re seen you do physical disability and illness that even if we Opiates prescribed to us it is doubtful not even then will we have The strength, and health to assemble so we could-be heard. .
Wow,,,is called corruption,,its call the long arm of corruption,,,like it was said early,,,Corrupt Power has no use for the truth,,,for the truth would reveal their corruption,,,,,ie why PNN,,,is getting their grant pulled,,,funny how we just put the blood on thee hands of the government For thatDr’s death,,,,,all of this,,,,and pfzer,,,pullSthere monies,,,,,,,,,this just shows us alllll how far our government will corruptly go,,,,,,,,,to falsify,,,,,this pseudo opiate epidemic,,,,its all lies by liars,,,klonody,,,,etc,,,,,,who think they have the rite to decide,,who suffers in physical pain and who does not,, thee ,”hitler,” mentality,,Genocide to all chronically ill human beings,who need medicine,,,to live life,,,,,This is right up there w/the blue prints for evil,,,klonodyn,dea,American Government style,,,,,Don’t tell me,,,they did not have there hands in censoring the truth,,its like Steve said long ago,,,,BASICALLY,,,,,FIRST THEY LITERALLY CENSORRE ME,,,,NOW,,,THEIR CENSORRINF ALLL WHO TELL THE TRUTH,,,,,SOON THEIR WILL BE NO-ONE,,,TO TELL THE TRUTH ANYMORE,,,,,,,Dr,Ibsen was also correct,,,,,they want opiaye gone folk,,they want pain management gone,,,,,,,because some arrogant idiots sitten behind some desk is sooooooo psychotic,,,soo full of delusion of grandeur,,,they literally think they have the right to force physical pain onto the medically ill via denial of access to medicine,,,,to allow that human being to live life,,,,THEY WANT US DEAD!!!,,why aren’t they censoring klonodyns twitter acct?????or investigateing his PROP,,,,,,, to take away their monies??????maryw