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Opioids Media Report 9/19/16
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Pain care lobby gave $3.5M in Ohio as opioid deaths climbed
Sep 17, 2016 | Associated Press
By Julie Carr Smyth
As Ohio's overdose epidemic has climbed toward a record high, an army of lobbyists representing makers of prescription painkillers and their allies poured more than $3.5 million into Ohio political coffers. Pharmaceutical companies and allied groups belonging to the Pain Care Forum lobbying collective gave nearly $2.5 million to federal candidates from -
Opioid lobby spends big on Tennessee politics
Sep 19, 2016 | Knoxville News Sentinel
By Mike Reicher
Tennessee politicians received more than $1.6 million in campaign contributions over the past decade from pharmaceutical companies and other members of the Pain Care Forum, a coalition that meets monthly to discuss opioid-related issues. An investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity examined the industry’s influence at statehouses around the nation. About $560,000 went to Tennessee state candidates and state political parties, and more than $1 million went to those running for federal office. -
Local legislators took in more than $50,000 from companies that fought against rules curbing opioid abuse
Sep 18, 2016 | Kingsport Tenessee Times News
By Nick Shepherd
Legislators from Northeast Tennessee received $52,375 in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies and allied groups that have participated in the Pain Care Forum, a coalition of pharmaceutical companies and nonprofits that spent millions of dollars across the country to stand in the way of policies intended to curb opioid abuse, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity. -
Ohio lawmakers rank among the top takers of money from pain pill lobbyists: Analysis
Sep 19, 2016 | Cleveland.com
By Eric Heisig
CLEVELAND, Ohio — As drug and opioid deaths in Ohio rose 81 percent between 2006 and 2014, prescription painkiller manufacturers and pain-management advocates contributed more than $3 million to the campaigns and political parties of many of the state's politicians. A cleveland.com analysis of data provided by The Associated Press and The Center for Public Integrity also found that many of the top recipients of campaign donations in Ohio have been increasingly vocal about the opioid crisis in the past few years.
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Pain care lobby gave $3.5M in Ohio as opioid deaths climbed
Sep 17, 2016 | Associated Press
By Julie Carr Smyth
COLUMBUS, OHIO
As Ohio's overdose epidemic has climbed toward a record high, an army of lobbyists representing makers of prescription painkillers and their allies poured more than $3.5 million into Ohio political coffers.
Pharmaceutical companies and allied groups belonging to the Pain Care Forum lobbying collective gave nearly $2.5 million to federal candidates from Ohio from 2006 through 2015, according to data analyzed by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity.
State-level giving of more than $1 million was directed at candidates of both parties, including governors, attorneys general, Ohio Supreme Court justices and legislative leaders, and committee chairs in power positions over Ohio health law. Republican Party committees received about $137,000, while Democratic ones got $41,000.
A huge chunk of the Ohio campaign cash identified through the analysis went to former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, of southwest Ohio, who received about $875,000 over the decade, according to the data. Boehner was speaker for about half the period reviewed, from 2011 to 2015.
The investigation by AP and CPI found that the Pain Care Forum worked in Washington over the past decade to quietly derail efforts to curb U.S. consumption of pain-killing drugs, such as OxyContin, by promoting the vital role of prescription painkillers in Americans' lives. That went hand in hand with a 50-state strategy.
Participating drug companies, associations and alliances also have other business before Ohio's Legislature, but a steady flow of contributions from forum participants — who employed, on average, 37 lobbyists a year in the state — has meant their interests remain well represented when pain care issues arise.
Among state candidates, Republican Gov. John Kasich topped the list, with about $46,000. Top state givers among forum members were Pfizer, Abbott Labs, Merck and Johnson & Johnson. Abbott spun off its U.S. pharmaceutical operation in 2013 and no longer lobbies on related issues.
Kasich has championed a host of remedies to Ohio's opioid problem, including creation of the Governor's Cabinet Opiate Action Team within days of his 2011 inauguration. He has worked with state leaders since then to extend access to treatments and increase availability of the overdose drug naloxone and launched an education campaign for schoolchildren called Start Talking, among other initiatives.
In the wake of those efforts, data from the analysis shows, painkiller prescriptions in Ohio have fallen from 11,261,528 in 2013 to 9,955,858 last year.
Nonetheless, Ohio's accidental drug deaths continued to skyrocket. Ohio overdose deaths have gone up annually over the past decade, from 1,515 in 2006 to 2,744 in 2015, according to the analysis. That 81-percent increase is the 7th highest among U.S. states over the period, the analysis found.
When a new record was announced last month, Kasich said it made him "feel terrible" — but he continued to stress the state's progress and its leading role in tackling opioid addiction and abuse. A spokeswoman said Friday that Kasich has never allowed campaign contributions to affect the work of his office.
After Kasich, the second highest recipient of Pain Care Forum contributions was state Sen. Dave Burke, a Marysville Republican and pharmacist, the data show.
Burke received about $32,000 from forum participants from 2006 to 2015. He has chaired the Senate's Medicaid committee, served on the budget-writing Finance Committee and was a champion of Ohio's recently enacted medical marijuana law.
The drug companies and allied groups belonging to the Pain Care Forum also gave to dozens of other state lawmakers over the decade, including House speakers, Senate presidents and important committee chairs. The data reflect the minimum amount of what was given over the period.
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Opioid lobby spends big on Tennessee politics
Sep 19, 2016 | Knoxville News Sentinel
By Mike Reicher
Tennessee politicians received more than $1.6 million in campaign contributions over the past decade from pharmaceutical companies and other members of the Pain Care Forum, a coalition that meets monthly to discuss opioid-related issues. An investigation by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity examined the industry’s influence at statehouses around the nation. About $560,000 went to Tennessee state candidates and state political parties, and more than $1 million went to those running for federal office.
Since 2006, Tennessee legislators have introduced at least 41 bills that dealt with opioids, about half of which passed. Here are the top five current Tennessee lawmakers who received the industry money from 2006 through 2015, according to a Tennessean analysis of data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the Center for Responsive Politics and the Federal Election Commission.Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville: $24,025
The outgoing lieutenant governor, Ramsey was seen as one of the most influential figures in state government whose support or opposition could easily determine the fate of bills. As speaker of the Senate since 2007, though, he could not introduce his own legislation. The pharma money, he said, was “a drop in the bucket” in his campaign coffers. And its influence on his votes? “None whatsoever.”Rep. Charles Sargent, Jr., R-Franklin: $16,425
In 2010, Sargent sponsored a bill that authorized physicians to refer workers' compensation patients for “pain management” treatment and limited their treatment to one year. An amendment extended the time to two years. Sargent said his contributions didn’t play a role: “I couldn’t even tell you who makes the opioid drugs.”House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville: $10,000
As speaker of the House of Representatives since 2011, Harwell doesn’t introduce her own bills, but her stance on legislation can prove pivotal. “I have a very strong record,” she said on combating the opioid addiction epidemic.Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin: $9,925
In 2012 Johnson sponsored a bill that enabled physicians to prescribe pain medication to workers' compensation patients who experienced pain beyond the expected treatment time. “We take money from a lot of different people,” said Johnson, chairman of the powerful Commerce and Labor Committee. “I don’t keep track of it.” He added that he’s opposed some bills pushed by the drug industry.Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge: $9,900
McNally has sponsored four opioid-related bills since 2006, two of which passed. The most recent required that all pain management clinics be licensed. In 2011 he introduced legislation that would have required insurers to cover “tamper-resistant” opioids. While that bill failed, it could have boosted drug company profits because most tamper-resistant opioids have no generic equivalent. Evidence, too, is mixed on whether those formulations actually prevent abuse. “You balance out the good effects against the bad,” he said. “Overall, we thought it was good.”
Top 5 big pharma players in Tenn. politics
While most opioids are made by large generics makers, some U.S. drug companies market opioids — and are active in state politics. Here are the top five contributors in Tennessee that also are members of the Pain Care Forum, an opioid advocacy group. To be sure, pharmaceutical companies donate to political campaigns and employ lobbyists for a range of legislative issues, including opioids. These totals include contributions to Tennessee candidates and state parties from 2006 to 2015.
Pfizer, $227,150: The company promotes Embeda, which Pfizer acquired when it bought King Pharmaceuticals in 2011. Pfizer also is seeking FDA approval for a long-acting drug with abuse-resistant properties called Troxyca ER.
Merck & Co., $102,900: Merck is not known for any major opioid-based drugs, but it's an active player behind the scenes on medical-related legislative issues.
Abbott Laboratories, $97,025: The longtime maker of Vicodin, the widespread drug used to treat extreme pain. It’s a mixture of the opioid hydrocodone and the primary ingredient in Tylenol. Abbott spun off its pharmaceutical wing into an independent company called AbbVie in January 2013.
King Pharmaceuticals, $73,500: Known primarily for its tamper-resistant formulations of opioids, Bristol, Tenn.-based King was acquired by Pfizer in 2011.
Johnson & Johnson, $25,425: In 2015, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, announced that it sold the U.S. rights to license opioid-based Nucynta for $1.05 billion.
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Sep 18, 2016 | Kingsport Tenessee Times News
By Nick Shepherd
Legislators from Northeast Tennessee received $52,375 in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies and allied groups that have participated in the Pain Care Forum, a coalition of pharmaceutical companies and nonprofits that spent millions of dollars across the country to stand in the way of policies intended to curb opioid abuse, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity.
According to AP, the makers of prescription painkillers adopted a 50-state strategy that includes hundreds of lobbyists and millions in campaign contributions to help kill or weaken measures aimed at stemming the tide of prescription opioids, the drugs at the heart of a crisis that has cost 165,000 Americans their lives and pushed countless more to crippling addiction.
During the time Tennessee lawmakers received those campaign contributions, overdose deaths from opioids rose almost every year, and Tennessee had the second-highest number of prescriptions written in the nation between those years. In total, those pharmaceutical companies participating in the Pain Care Forum gave Tennessee politicians $1,617,631 between 2006 and 2013.
The group also employed an average of 21 lobbyists in Tennessee during that time. The Pain Care Forum was founded in 2006 by the chief lobbyist for Purdue Pharma, the makers of the drug OxyContin.
It must be noted that those organizations participating in the Pain Care Forum have a number of other issues they are involved in beyond opioids so it is impossible to tell how much of their spending was directly related to influencing opioid policies.
All of the politicians contacted for this story said the money they received had no influence on their voting record when it came to placing tighter restrictions on prescribing opioids.
But at least two of the groups involved with the Pain Care Forum, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the Academy of Integrative Pain Management, worked against repealing the Intractable Pain Act in Tennessee in 2014.
The Intractable Pain Act gave patients the right to request opioids and mandated physicians who did not wish to prescribe opioids to give patients the name of a physician who would prescribe them opioids.
The bill failed to get past the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that year, which was chaired by Sen. Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City. He received $8,550 from pharmaceutical companies associated with the Pain Care Forum.
"I'm not aware of that group at all," Crowe said. "I'm sure I received some contributions from being on the health committee from pharmaceutical companies, but I have never heard of that group. ... I can tell you any of the opioid groups trying to stop or slow down that type of legislation would not be happy with me."
Crowe received $2,800 from Abbott Laboratories, $4,000 from Merck & Co., $1,000 from Pfizer and $750 from Johnson & Johnson between 2007 and 2014.
Tennessee’s Intractable Pain Act was repealed in 2015.
The politician who received more money than any other was Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. He received $24,025 from pharmaceutical companies, most of which was received when he ran for governor in 2010.
"I’ve been one of the leading advocates for some kind of regulation on opioid clinics," Ramsey said. “I’ve got a long list of getting these illegal drugs off the street.”
Ramsey received $21,000 from Pfizer in 2009 and 2010. He has received $1,500 from Johnson & Johnson, $1,000 from King Pharmaceuticals and $525 from Abbott Laboratories.
U.S. Rep. Phil Roe received the second-most campaign contributions from companies in the Pain Care Forum. He received $10,750 in total from different pharmaceutical companies.
"I’ve said it before and I will say it again: My only special interest is the people of East Tennessee,” Roe said. “The opioid epidemic has hit East Tennessee hard, and I was proud to be a leading supporter of a law that will help reduce opioid dependence and availability and combat overprescribing.”
He received $5,000 from the American Society of Anesthesiologists, $3,000 from Pfizer, $2,000 from Abbvie, $500 from Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of American and $250 from Boston Scientific Corp.
Crowe received the third-most contributions from those companies.
Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, took in $3,550 from those companies during those years.
"(The money) was given to my campaign account, and it was used for re-election expenses," Hill said. "I've always been supportive of dealing with the pill mills and dealing with opioid abuse. I supported the governor's efforts on the (prescription monitoring) database that has now reduced doctor shopping by 10 percent."
Hill received $1,000 from Allegran PLC, $1,000 from Pfizer, $1,000 from Merck & Co., $300 from Abbott Laboratories and $250 from Johnson & Johnson.
Former representative Tony Shipley received $2,050 during his years in office from known groups in the Pain Care Forum.
He did not respond to a request for comment.
Shipley received $1,000 from Merck & Co., $800 from Pfizer and $250 from Abbott Laboratories.
New state Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, received $2,000 from pharmaceutical companies.
"I think I've been pretty staunchly opposed to opioids," Lundberg said. "Obviously, that's the significant issue we've had in East Tennessee. ... It is what we as a legislative body have been trying to deal with so that we don't hamper people who legitimately have chronic pain, but I think now that's the minority."
He received $1,000 from Pfizer, $750 from Allergan PLC and $250 from Abbott Laboratories.
Rep. Timothy Hill, R-Blountville, received $750 from Pain Care Forum groups.
"Anybody is welcome to contribute to my campaign," he said. "These companies or groups or individuals or whoever that contributes, they are signing on to my agenda, not vice versa."
He received $500 from Merck & Co. and $250 from Pfizer.
And former Rep. Nathan Vaughn received $700 during his time in office. All of his contributions came from Abbott Laboratories.
He did not respond to a request for a comment.
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Ohio lawmakers rank among the top takers of money from pain pill lobbyists: Analysis
Sep 19, 2016 | Cleveland.com
By Eric Heisig
CLEVELAND, Ohio — As drug and opioid deaths in Ohio rose 81 percent between 2006 and 2014, prescription painkiller manufacturers and pain-management advocates contributed more than $3 million to the campaigns and political parties of many of the state's politicians.
A cleveland.com analysis of data provided by The Associated Press and The Center for Public Integrity also found that many of the top recipients of campaign donations in Ohio have been increasingly vocal about the opioid crisis in the past few years.
The data shows that while drug deaths — the majority of which were from heroin and opioids — spiked nationwide, so did lobbying efforts and campaign contributions from the Pain Care Forum, a coalition of drug makers, trade groups and opioid-friendly nonprofits. The forum's mission was to ensure painkillers remained easy to obtain, and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to deliver its message.
Some of Ohio's senators and U.S. House members and candidates received hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the Pain Care Forum, which includes companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Merck and Johnson & Johnson. Abbott spun off its U.S. pharmaceutical operation in 2013 and no longer lobbies on related issues.
Some state officeholders also saw tens of thousands of dollars in contributions.
And while Ohio's state lawmakers have introduced and pushed measures in recent years designed to address opioid abuse, the money can appear to create a conflict of interest with politicians who accept money from pro-pain management groups and then espouse the problems with said painkillers.
"The concern is that it's awfully difficult to trace any particular dollar given or spent to a particular vote," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who studies campaign finance. "The way that money influences politics can be much subtler and insidious than that."
Who got the most?
In Ohio, the most Pain Care Forum money went to former Rep. John Boehner, who served as speaker of the House between 2011 and 2015. The Cincinnati-area Republican received $875,470 between 2006 and midway through 2015, when the last available campaign-finance records were available.
Boehner's total is only exceeded by campaign contributions to President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who mounted presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
Below Boehner is Rep. Pat Tiberi, a Columbus-area Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health. The subcommittee deals with many of the issues of interest to the pain-management industry. He received nearly $300,000 in contributions from the Pain Care Forum.
Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from Cincinnati, comes in third with $211,865 between 2009 and mid-2015.
Rounding out the top five are U.S. Reps. Steve Stivers and Marcia Fudge. The Columbus-area Republican received $173,950 between 2007 and mid-2015, while the Warrensville Heights Democrat got $78,750 from 2009 to mid-2015.
Where does Ohio rank?
In the data provided to cleveland.com, members of the Pain Care Forum gave more than $2.3 million in donations, the seventh highest amount in the country, to politicians running for federal office from Ohio. Ohio's state office candidates received more than $885,000 between 2006 through the middle of 2015, the 10th highest amount in the country.
An additional $178,000 went to the state parties, with the majority going to the Republicans, which have controlled the Ohio legislature for most of the past decade.
In all, between 2006 and mid-2015, the Pain Care Forum donated Ohio's political candidates more than $3.4 million, the ninth highest of any state. Forum members also employed, on average, 37 lobbyists a year in the state.
Between 2006 and 2014, Ohio saw 17,152 drug deaths, with the number going up 81 percent during that time period. Most of these were from heroin and opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Per capita, Ohio had the fifth-highest rate of drug deaths in the country, trailing West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire and Kentucky.
At the same time, the number of prescriptions dropped more than 10 percent between 2013 and 2015, faster than the national rate, according to data from IMS Health.
State action on opioid abuse
The amount of campaign contributions that flowed to Ohio politicians is a bit unique, because lawmakers here were fairly proactive early on in trying to address the opioid epidemic.
Much of that was spearheaded by Republican Gov. John Kasich when he took office in 2011. That year, he signed the "Pill Mill Bill,"designed to crack down on pain management clinics that doled out prescription painkillers without merit.
In Ohio, that pushed those who got their drugs from doctors to buying drugs on the street. Law enforcement, recovery experts and medical officials attribute the increased popularity of black market drugs, such as heroin and fentanyl, to the fight against pill mills.
Kasich also created the Cabinet Opiate Action Team within days of his inauguration and has worked with state leaders to expand access to treatments and increase availability of the overdose drug naloxone.
Members of the Pain Care Forum donated nearly $46,000 to Kasich and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's election campaign, though a Kasich spokeswoman said the governor does not allow campaigns contributions to affect his work in office.
"Anyone who suggests that's not aggressive isn't paying attention or just wants to play politics," Kasich spokeswoman Emmalee Kalmbach said in an emailed statement. "There's no room for division here, however, Ohio must come together to save lives."
Cheri Walter, head of the Ohio Association of Behavioral Health Authorities, said if the pain-management industry had made a large push in Ohio, it wasn't coming to her mind. She said Kasich and others' actions were proactive as opioid deaths began to spike.
Federal lawmakers
While perhaps not as early as the state politicians, federal politicians have begun to take notice of the opioid scourge.
Portman has been especially visible on this issue. He authored and helped shepherd the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act through the Senate.
The bill, signed by Obama in July, calls for $181 million a year in new spending for addiction and recovery programs.
The junior senator has also put forth other measures aimed at fighting the opioid scourge.
Advocates say Portman's treatment bill is not perfect, though.
It does not guarantee money for programs and there are no restrictions on painkillers or mandatory training for doctors who prescribe medication.
Portman spokesman Emily Benavides said the senator "supports reducing the amount of opioids that are prescribed and increasing physician education about the risks of overprescribing to ensure that happens." She said the bill requires that studies be conducted on how to cut down on the prescribing of painkillers.
William Denihan, the CEO of Cuyahoga County's Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services board, said the bill is a start.
"It's not everything I wanted," he said. "I think at least we have their attention."
Tiberi, who received the second-highest amount from the Pain Care Forum of any Ohio politician, has also taken stances against heroin and opioids in recent years.
His spokeswoman, Olivia Hnat, said in an emailed statement that Tiberi "supports efforts to prevent addiction, stop opioids from being over prescribed and increase education on the risks of opioid medication and drugs."
Still, Tokaji said it can be difficult to show how a campaign donation affects a politician's actions. It rarely is as simple as encouraging a "yes" or "no" vote, he said.
"It's inevitably hard to say how much this money influences legislative decisions, not only the decisions to vote for a particular bill but the decision not to act in the face of a serious and growing problem like opioid abuse," he added.
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