Pharma lobbying held deep influence over opioid policies
Key findings from the reporting:
- Drug companies and allied advocates spent more than $880 million on lobbying and political contributions at the state and federal level over the past decade; by comparison, a handful of groups advocating for opioid limits spent $4 million. The money covered a range of political activities important to the drug industry, including legislation and regulations related to opioids.
- The opioid industry and its allies contributed to roughly 7,100 candidates for state-level offices.
- The drug companies and allied groups have an army of lobbyists averaging 1,350 per year, covering all 50 state capitals.
- The opioid lobby’s political spending adds up to more than eight times what the formidable gun lobby recorded for political activities during the same period.
- For over a decade, a group called the Pain Care Forum has met with some of the highest-ranking health officials in the federal government, while quietly working to influence proposed regulations on opioids and promote legislation and reports on the problem of untreated pain. The group is coordinated by the chief lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.
- Two of the drug industry’s most active allies, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the Academy of Integrative Pain Management, have contacted legislators and other officials about opioid measures in at least 18 states, even in some cases when cancer patients were specifically exempted from drug restrictions. State lawmakers often don’t know that these groups receive part of their funding from drugmakers.
- Five states have passed laws related to abuse-deterrent opioids and scores of bills have been introduced, with at least 21 using nearly identical language that some legislators said was supplied by pharmaceutical lobbyists. Pharmaceutical companies lobby for such laws, which typically require insurers and pharmacists to give preferential treatment to the patent-protected drugs, even though some experts say the deterrents are easily circumvented.
Filed under: General Problems
This is the newest push this week, it would be hard to miss, articles and companion articles, it’s all over the papers and news, with “state” versions on how much the “lobby “funded ” each state. Part of it seems to be a push to discredit the 2011 IOM which was mandated by the ACA in 2010 to draft a comprehensive report on “The State of Pain in America. My guess is it doesn’t fit anymore into the new “epidemic of opioid use agenda” People in pain and their advocates are being purposefully marginalized by the AP Associated Press-which seems to have become “state owned media” to get this PROPaganda out. PROP is already embedded in the lobbying process against opioids, on the federal level and in almost every article, Dr. Kolodony is quoted. He doesn’t treat pain! He should have no say in the matter when it comes to treating pain patients.Thank goodness someone is lobbying for patients with pain!!
Seems important to know.
From the latest AP articles::
This is referencing the 2011 Institute of Medicine– IOM Report which was a mandate for the Affordable Care Act, citing 100m people in pain. Now they are trying to discredit it .
“Jennifer Walsh, a spokeswoman for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, said, “We stand by our report, the committee, and the process that produced it.”
“In 2012, drugmakers and their affiliates in the forum sent a letter to U.S. senators promoting a recent report on a “crisis of epidemic proportions”: pain in America. Few knew the report stemmed from legislation drafted and pushed by forum members and that their experts had helped author it. The report estimated more than 100 million Americans — roughly 40 percent of adults — suffered from chronic pain, an eye-popping statistic that some researchers call deeply problematic.”
And
“After months of scrutiny, the CDC in December released a list of its advisers. One of 17 “core experts” had served as a paid consultant to a law firm suing opioid drugmakers”
Not a minor detail in my opinion.. as it was Dr. Jane Ballantyne, the President of PROP. PROP members cited throughout the article. You know, Kolodony doesn’t treat pain, why is he always cited as an expert on these matters?
Pro-Painkiller Echo Chamber Shaped Policy Amid Drug Epidemic
By The Associated Press