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Opioids Media Update 3/28/17
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U.S. senator launches probe into five top opioid drugmakers
Mar 28, 2017 | Reuters
U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill sought on Tuesday details from the nation's top opioid drugmakers on their sales and marketing practices, as lawmakers step up efforts to tackle the country's deadly opioid crisis. -
Senator McCaskill Begins Probe of Prescription Opioid Marketing
Mar 28, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
An influential Democratic lawmaker has begun a probe into the marketing of opioid drugs, sending letters to Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson and other big sellers of the pain medicines for materials detailing sales practices. -
(UPDATE) Sen. Claire McCaskill opens probe of opioid drugmakers
Mar 28, 2017 | USA Today
By Deidre Shesgreen
A top Senate Democrat is investigating the role drug companies may have played in fueling the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic— demanding internal documents from five leading drugmakers on the marketing tactics for opioid painkillers and what, if anything, the companies knew about the dangers of those drugs. -
Senator Launches Probe Into Practices of Opioid Manufacturers
Mar 28, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Katherine Greifeld
A Democratic senator has launched an investigation into how five drugmakers promoted prescription pain pills whose abuse has become epidemic in the U.S. and led to thousands of overdoses and deaths a year. -
(UPDATE) Democratic senator asks drugmakers about opioid sales plans
Mar 28, 2017 | Associated Press
A Democratic senator is seeking marketing information, sales records and studies from manufacturers of the top-selling opioid products in the United States to determine whether drugmakers have contributed to an overuse of the pain killers. -
(UPDATE) McCaskill demands documents from opioid makers to determine whether they fueled drug crisis
Mar 28, 2017 | Washington Post
By Lenny Bernstein and Scott Higham
Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri demanded information Tuesday from five top opioid manufacturers, saying she would investigate their alleged role in the drug epidemic responsible for more than 200,000 overdose deaths since 2000. -
(UPDATE) Opioid epidemic: Senate committee opens probe of five big painkiller makers
Mar 28, 2017 | CNBC
By Dan Managan
A Senate committee is investigating whether practices at five of the top makers of opioids in the United States fueled an epidemic of painkiller abuse that has led to the fatal overdoses of tens of thousands of Americans. -
McCaskill investigating opioid producers
Mar 28, 2017 | The Hill
By Reid Wilson
The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is asking leading pharmaceutical manufacturers to turn over information related to the marketing of highly profitable, and highly addictive, opioid drugs as part of a wide-ranging investigation. -
The Senate may finally try to hold big pharma accountable for the opioid epidemic
Mar 28, 2017 | Vox
By German Lopez
A top Senate Democrat is launching a formal investigation into one of the big culprits behind the nation’s worst drug overdose crisis in history: pharmaceutical companies. -
A Senator Is Taking on the Pharma Companies Behind the Opioid Epidemic
Mar 28, 2017 | Mother Jones
By Julia Lurie
On Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) launched an investigation into how the nation's leading painkiller manufacturers fueled the current opioid crisis—the most deadly drug epidemic in US history. -
Top Democrat Goes After Drug Makers For Fueling Opioid Addiction
Mar 28, 2017 | Daily Caller
Senators are increasing their scrutiny of major drug manufacturers in light of the national opioid epidemic, alleging pharmaceutical companies intentionally downplayed the risk posed by painkillers. -
Senator McCaskill Launching Investigation Into Opioid Drugmakers
Mar 28, 2017 | The Street
By Amanda Schiavo
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is looking into the sales and marketing practices of the country's top five drugmakers as part of a larger effort to take on America's opioid crisis. -
Missouri Senator Leads Committee Investigation Into Opioid Manufacturers
Mar 28, 2017 | CBS/Fox Missouri - Ozarks First
By Alisa Nelson
An investigation is underway by a U.S. Senate committee to determine whether pharmaceutical manufacturers have contributed to opioid drug overuse and overprescribing. -
(UPDATE) Opioid industry draws scrutiny of Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri
Mar 28, 2017 | Kansas City Star
By Bryan Lowry
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri will lead a congressional probe of the opioid industry after executives from one of the nation’s largest opioid manufacturers were charged in a federal racketeering case. -
McCaskill sends queries to opioid makers about sales, marketing strategies, donations
Mar 28, 2017 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Chuck Raasch
Sen. Claire McCaskill has written letters to the nation’s top pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioids seeking information on the companies' sales, marketing strategies, internal addiction studies and contributions to advocacy organizations. -
Sen. Claire McCaskill launches probe of opioid manufacturers’ role in epidemic
Mar 28, 2017 | The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
A Senate Democrat said Tuesday she is launching a wide-ranging investigation into prescription drug makers and their role in an opioid epidemic that is ravaging every corner of the nation. -
Sen. McCaskill to lead congressional probe of prescription drug makers
Mar 28, 2017 | KOMU 8 Missouri
As Missouri legislators debate the merits of a state prescription drug monitoring program, five of the nation's largest prescription opioid producers are coming under investigation. -
The Now Cincinnati
Mar 28, 2017 | ABC Cincinnati, OH
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News 8 at 4p
Mar 28, 2017 | NBC Harrisburg, PA
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Mar 28, 2017 | ABC Tampa
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WESH 2 News at 4:00
Mar 28, 2017 | NBC Orlando
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Mar 28, 2017 | BNC Kansas, MO
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Mar 28, 2017 | ABC Springfield, MO
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U.S. senator launches probe into five top opioid drugmakers
Mar 28, 2017 | Reuters
U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill sought on Tuesday details from the nation's top opioid drugmakers on their sales and marketing practices, as lawmakers step up efforts to tackle the country's deadly opioid crisis.
The Missouri senator's investigation comes amid an epidemic of opioid addiction, with 91 Americans dying everyday as a result of overdose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share," McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to the drugmakers. (bit.ly/2o7pa4p)
McCaskill asked Johnson & Johnson, Mylan NV, Purdue Pharma, Insys Therapeutics Inc and Depomed Inc for internal estimates of the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose of opioids.
The companies are the top five U.S. prescription opioid drugmakers by 2015 sales, according to McCaskill's letter.
Depomed and Purdue Pharma said they were reviewing the letter and would respond accordingly.
Purdue also said its OxyContin painkiller made up just 2 percent of the U.S. opioid analgesic prescription market.
Johnson & Johnson said it had received the letter and would address the senator's request.
"We believe that we have acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients regarding our opioid pain medications," said Jessica Castles Smith, a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen.
Insys and Mylan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Senator McCaskill Begins Probe of Prescription Opioid Marketing
Mar 28, 2017 | Wall Street Journal
By Jonathan D. Rockoff
An influential Democratic lawmaker has begun a probe into the marketing of opioid drugs, sending letters to Purdue Pharma LP, Johnson & Johnson and other big sellers of the pain medicines for materials detailing sales practices.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D.-Mo.), the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said she aims to clarify “the challenges industry practices pose to efforts to curb opioid addiction.”
Other companies receiving letters from Sen. McCaskill requesting various company documents and information are Insys Therapeutics Inc., Mylan NV and Depomed Inc.
Spokespeople for Depomed, J&J and Purdue Pharma said the companies are reviewing the letter from Sen. McCaskill and plan to respond. The other companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Purdue Pharma added that it “has dedicated itself for years” to trying to address the opioid crisis, including developing abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for programs to monitor the use of the drugs. J&J said it believes it has “acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients,” and the labels of its opioid pain drugs carry warnings about the risks from use.
The companies aren’t required by law to respond, because Sen. McCaskill sent the letters individually, rather than with the chairman of the committee. A spokesman for the senator said she hopes the companies will respond “given the gravity and importance of the issue.”
In 2015, more than 15,000 people died in the U.S. from overdoses involving prescription opioids, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The deaths have sparked efforts to curb overuse of the painkillers, along with scrutiny of the role that drugmakers have played. Some big pharmaceutical companies have paid large fines over their marketing of opioid painkillers. In 2007, Purdue Frederick Co., an affiliate of Purdue Pharma, and three of its executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges of misleading the public about the addictive qualities of OxyContin, and agreed to pay $634.5 million in fines.
In February, two Alabama doctors were convicted of taking $115,000 in kickbacks from Insys and prescribing opioids for no medical purpose, among other crimes. Prosecutors said Insys employees disguised the kickbacks as legitimate fees paid to the doctors for promoting the opioid painkiller Subsys at speaking events. The doctors said they planned to appeal the convictions.
Former Insys sales representative Natalie Perhacs pleaded guilty to participating in the kickback scheme.
At least 10 former Insys employees, including former CEO Michael Babich, have been arrested on federal criminal charges that include racketeering, insurance fraud and paying kickbacks to doctors. Mr. Babich and the other former employees have pleaded not guilty to the allegations. Insys has said it is cooperating with all ongoing investigations and is committed to complying with laws and regulations.
Insys said Monday that Saeed Motahari, who had been Purdue Pharma’s chief operating officer, would become the company’s chief executive starting April 17.
Sen. McCaskill sent letters to the companies selling the top-five prescription opioids by sales, though other companies also have big revenue from their own painkillers.
In 2015, nearly 249 million prescriptions were dispensed for opioids in the U.S., with the sales totaling $9.6 billion, according to the latest data from IMS Health.
Among the materials Sen. McCaskill requested from the five companies were “any internal estimates of the risk of” misuse, abuse or diversion of a drug, marketing plans and any quotas issued to sales representatives to recruit doctors to speak about the products.
The requests follow the senator’s request earlier this year that the Justice Department’s inspector general review the Drug Enforcement Administration’s role in curbing opioid abuse.
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(UPDATE) Sen. Claire McCaskill opens probe of opioid drugmakers
Mar 28, 2017 | USA Today
By Deidre Shesgreen
A top Senate Democrat is investigating the role drug companies may have played in fueling the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic— demanding internal documents from five leading drugmakers on the marketing tactics for opioid painkillers and what, if anything, the companies knew about the dangers of those drugs.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., on Tuesday requested reams of information from the nation’s top five opioid manufacturers, including:
Any internal studies that may have detailed the possible risks of addiction and abuse associated with painkillers such as OxyContin and other powerful opioid medications Marketing and business plans — including quotas for sales representatives — to increase sales of opioids Contributions made to third-party advocacy groups that may have worked to block efforts to increase regulation of opioids.
McCaskill’s office provided an embargoed copy of her requests to USA TODAY. The companies she has targeted are: Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Insys, Depomed and Mylan.
The makers of opioid drugs have strongly defended their practices in the past, saying they have worked to lessen the risks of opioid abuse.
"The opioid crisis is among our nation’s top health challenges, which is why our company has dedicated itself for years to being part of the solution," said Bob Josephson, a spokesman for Purdue, which makes OxyContin. Josephson said OxyContin accounts for "only 2% of the opioid analgesic prescriptions nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs. We are reviewing Senator McCaskill’s letter and will respond accordingly.”
McCaskill is the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, a post she has used to investigate other drug-company practices. It’s not clear whether the committee’s Republican majority will support her request for the drug company data; if the companies decline to cooperate, the Democrats cannot subpoena any information without GOP support.
McCaskill is hardly the first to go after the manufacturers of opioids, which have come under increased scrutiny in recent years as the opioid epidemic spread across the country. The city of Chicago and other localities have sued some of the drug companies, alleging the use of deceptive marketing campaigns that downplayed the risks of addiction.
Last year, a joint investigation by the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization, detailed how drugmakers used their lobbying firepower and deep pockets to undermine legislation aimed at curbing opioid prescribing practices, among other things.
The sale of prescription painkillers has quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Overdose deaths from opioids hit a record high in 2015, claiming the lives of more than 33,000 Americans. The CDC reported that nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid.
“This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful — and often deadly — painkillers,” McCaskill said in her embargoed statement.
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Senator Launches Probe Into Practices of Opioid Manufacturers
Mar 28, 2017 | Bloomberg
By Katherine Greifeld
A Democratic senator has launched an investigation into how five drugmakers promoted prescription pain pills whose abuse has become epidemic in the U.S. and led to thousands of overdoses and deaths a year.
Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, on Tuesday wrote the chief executive officers of Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma Inc., Mylan NV, Insys Therapeutics Inc., and Depomed Inc., demanding documents and information related to the sales, marketing and education strategies the companies used to promote opioid painkillers. The selected companies are the top five prescription opioid manufacturers in the U.S., she said.
The opioid epidemic has also attracted the attention of President Donald Trump’s administration, which is drafting an executive order to create a commission to address the crisis, according to a report from Stat News Tuesday. The Washington Post reportedSunday that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie would head the effort.
Depomed shares fell as much as 5.2 percent and were down 3.6 percent to $14.37 at 12:34 p.m. in New York. Insys was down 1.3 percent, while J&J and Mylan were little changed. Purdue is closely held.
“This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful -- and often deadly -- painkillers,” McCaskill wrote. “They show an industry apparently focused not on preventing abuse but on fostering addiction as a central component of its business model.”
More than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, with a third of those deaths caused by prescription opioids including Purdue’s OxyContin and Insys’s Subsys, according to a summary of the investigation on McCaskill’s website.
Opioid-related fatalities have been rising rapidly -- about 22,000 people in the U.S. died from prescription opioid-related deaths in 2015, up from 19,000 in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much of the increase in deaths has been caused by illegally made versions of the prescription opioid fentanyl, according to the CDC.
McCaskill requested that the companies respond by April 25.
Purdue spokesman John Puskar and Depomed spokesman Chris Keenan said their companies are reviewing the letter and will respond accordingly. Spokesmen for Mylan, J&J and Insys didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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(UPDATE) Democratic senator asks drugmakers about opioid sales plans
Mar 28, 2017 | Associated Press
A Democratic senator is seeking marketing information, sales records and studies from manufacturers of the top-selling opioid products in the United States to determine whether drugmakers have contributed to an overuse of the pain killers.
Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said that sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999, taking a financial toll on the government and a deadly toll on thousands of consumers.
McCaskill said previous government and media reports show an industry not focused on preventing abuse but on fostering addiction. She is investigating whether such practices continue today.
Some of the records she is asking for from the five companies include the sales rep expenses for entertaining physicians, payments made to health care advocacy groups, as well as marketing and business plans.
"We have an obligation to everyone devastated by this epidemic to find answers," McCaskill said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday. "All of this didn't happen overnight. It happened one prescription and marketing program at a time."
More than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2015, and roughly two-thirds of them had used prescription opioids like OxyContin or Vicodin or illegal drugs like heroin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those overdoses have jumped 33 percent in the past five years alone, with some states reporting the death toll had doubled or more.
Last September, The Associated Press and Center for Public Integrity published an investigation outlining how makers of prescription painkillers have 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 industry and its allies spent more than $880 million nationwide on lobbying and campaign contributions from 2006 through 2015 — more than 200 times what those advocating for stricter policies spent and eight times more than the influential gun lobby recorded for similar activities during that same period, the investigation found.
McCaskill is the ranking Democratic lawmaker on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The Republican chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson, did not sign the letter seeking the information from the drug manufacturers, and an aide said Republicans weren't given time to join the investigation.
Brittni Palke, spokeswoman for the committee, said McCaskill waited until the last minute to notify Johnson of the probe. She said Johnson was disappointed by McCaskill's decision to "get headlines instead of results."
"Contrary to the committee's longstanding bipartisan traditions, Senator McCaskill chose to make her requests unilaterally despite widespread interest in coming together to address the root causes of America's opioid addiction," Palke said.
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(UPDATE) McCaskill demands documents from opioid makers to determine whether they fueled drug crisis
Mar 28, 2017 | Washington Post
By Lenny Bernstein and Scott Higham
Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri demanded information Tuesday from five top opioid manufacturers, saying she would investigate their alleged role in the drug epidemic responsible for more than 200,000 overdose deaths since 2000.
“This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful — and often deadly — painkillers,” McCaskill, who is the ranking Democrat of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote to company executives. “To achieve this goal, manufacturers have reportedly sought, among other techniques, to downplay the risk of addiction to their products and encourage physicians to prescribe opioids for all cases of pain and in high doses.”
McCaskill sent letters to Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Insys Therapeutics, Mylan, and Depomed, which she said make the top-five-selling prescription painkillers. She is seeking sales and marketing materials, any studies the companies might have conducted about the addictive properties of their drugs, information on compliance with legal settlements and figures on donations to advocacy groups.
McCaskill said she wants to know whether manufacturers have contributed to overuse and overprescribing of opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 180,000 people have died of overdoses of prescription opioids since 2000 and tens of thousands more have succumbed to overdoses from heroin and fentanyl.
Most of the companies said Tuesday that they were reviewing McCaskill's request. A spokesman for Purdue Pharma issued a statement noting that its brand-name product, OxyContin, "accounts for only 2 percent of the opioid analgesic prescriptions nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs. We are reviewing Senator McCaskill's letter and will respond accordingly."
And in a separate statement, a spokeswoman for Janssen Pharmaceuticals said "we believe that we have acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients regarding our opioid pain medications, which are FDA-approved and carry FDA-mandated warnings about the known risks of the medications on every product label."
Earlier this month, McCaskill asked the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate why the Drug Enforcement Administration had delayed or blocked enforcement efforts against wholesale distributors of opioids accused of failing to follow laws designed to keep legal painkillers from reaching the black market. She cited reporting by The Washington Post that the efforts of DEA field investigators had been frustratedwhen attorneys at headquarters imposed higher burdens of proof for bringing cases, even as the overdose rate from those prescription drugs soared.
The city of Chicago and several U.S. counties have sued opioid manufacturers, demanding reimbursement for the expense of grappling with the drug crisis. The lawsuits contend that aggressive marketing by the companies has fueled the crisis.
Last year, Mylan was accused of price-gouging after it sharply raised the price of its lifesaving EpiPen injection medication for allergic reactions. The company released a lower-cost generic version of the device in response.
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(UPDATE) Opioid epidemic: Senate committee opens probe of five big painkiller makers
Mar 28, 2017 | CNBC
By Dan Managan
A Senate committee is investigating whether practices at five of the top makers of opioids in the United States fueled an epidemic of painkiller abuse that has led to the fatal overdoses of tens of thousands of Americans.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., on Tuesday sent letters to the companies seeking information about sales and marketing materials, internal studies on addictions, details on their compliance with legal settlements and donations to advocacy groups.
The companies are Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson's Janssen division, Insys, Mylan and Depomed. McCaskill is the ranking Democrat on the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
By late morning, Depomed's stock was down 3.3 percent; Insy shares were down 1.8 percent and J&J was down about 0.5 percent. Mylan's price rose 0.6 percent.
The companies targeted are the makers of the top five opioid products by sales.
"The investigation will explore whether pharmaceutical manufacturers — at the head of the opioids pipeline — have contributed to opioid over-utilization and over-prescription as overdose deaths in the last 15 years have approached nearly 200,000," said a press release announcing the probe.
The statement notes that in 2015 alone, more than 30,000 people died from overdoses of either prescription opioids or of heroin.
And since 1999, the release says, sales of prescription opioids have increased four-fold.
"This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful — and often deadly — painkillers," McCaskill wrote in her letters to the companies.
"To achieve this goal, manufactures have reportedly sought, among other techniques, to downplay the risk of addiction to their products and encourage physicians to prescribe opioids for all cases of pain and in high doses," she wrote.
McCaskill said she often hears stories about "drug overdose deaths, the vast majority of them related to prescription opioids or heroin," which are "single-handedly destroying families and communities across Missouri and the country."
"And I refuse to just stand by and watch. We have an obligation to everyone devastated by this epidemic to find answers," McCaskill said. "All of this didn't happen overnight. It happened one prescription and marketing program at at time."
Her letters note that in 2007, Purdue Pharma paid $635 million in fines to settle criminal and civil charges related to the company's misrepresentation of the addictive qualities of its OxyContin painkiller medication, and that three executives of the firm pleaded guilty to criminal misbranding.
They also note that the city of Chicago sued Purdue Pharma, Janssen, and several other opioid makers in 2015, claiming the companies deceptively marketed their painkillers.
The Chicago lawsuit alleges that Purdue and Janssen have sponsored continuing medical education activities for doctors "that were delivered thousands of times promoting chronic opioid and supporting and disseminating ... deceptive and biased messages."
The sessions "inflate the benefits of opioids, and frequently omit or downplay their risks or adverse effects," the complaint claims.
Purdue Pharma and Janssen have denied the claims.
Purdue Pharma, in response to McCaskill's letter, told CNBC, "The opioid crisis is among our nation's top health challenges, which is why our company has dedicated itself for years to being part of the solution."
"OxyContin accounts for only 2 percent of the opioid analgesic prescription market nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs," the company said. "We are reviewing Senator McCaskill's letter and will respond accordingly."
Janssen spokeswoman Jessica Castles Smith said, "We received the letter from Senator McCaskill and we plan to address her request."
"We believe that we have acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients regarding our opioid pain medications, which are FDA-approved and carry FDA-mandated warnings about the known risks of the medications on every product label," said Smith.
Depomed and Mylan confirmed receipt of the letter from McCaskill, but had no immediate comment. Insys has not yet responded to CNBC for comment.
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McCaskill investigating opioid producers
Mar 28, 2017 | The Hill
By Reid Wilson
The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee is asking leading pharmaceutical manufacturers to turn over information related to the marketing of highly profitable, and highly addictive, opioid drugs as part of a wide-ranging investigation.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Tuesday her office has asked Purdue, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, Insys, Mylan and Depomed to turn over internal studies that projected the risks of misuse, abuse or addiction to the powerful painkillers. McCaskill’s office said it will investigate whether those manufacturers have contributed to the growing opioid epidemic that has claimed nearly 200,000 lives in the last 15 years.
“I hear it everywhere I go — drug overdose deaths, the vast majority of them related to prescription opioids or heroin, are single-handedly destroying families and communities across Missouri and the country,” McCaskill said in a statement.
“The vast majority of the employees, executives, sales representatives, scientists and doctors involved with this industry are good people and responsible actors, but some are not,” McCaskill said. “This investigation is about finding out whether the same practices that led to this epidemic still continue today, and if decisions are being made that harm the public health.”
Opioid addiction has grown dramatically in the two decades since the first such drugs were introduced, as has heroin addiction as access to opioids becomes more difficult. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies have made billions from opioid sales.
Several states have raised questions about the number of opioid prescriptions being written. An investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail found drug makers had shipped 780 million doses of hydrocodone and oxycodone into West Virginia over a six-year period. A study released last week by the Brookings Institute found death rates among non-college educated white voters is on the rise, and opioid addiction has “added fuel to the flames.”
Governors and state legislators have considered nearly 1,000 measures in recent years to combat the growing epidemic, including measures to make overdose-reversal drugs more widely available, laws limiting the amount of opioids a doctor may prescribe and bills to expand state-run prescription monitoring databases.
Northeastern and Southern states have been hit hardest by the growing epidemic, though the problem is expanding to all corners of the nation.
“This is a problem that’s been a long time in the making, and one that’s been swept under the rug,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D), a physician by training, told The Hill. “It’s probably the biggest public health crisis in the country.”
McCaskill’s investigation is Congress’s latest foray into the epidemic and its root causes. Last year, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which included $1 billion in funding over the next two years to combat opioid addiction, and the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a measure sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
Portman and McCaskill investigated the role Medicare Part D groups played in monitoring opioid abuse, and McCaskill and Sen. Susan Collins(R-Maine) looked into steep price increases for naloxone, the drug that reverses heroin overdoses.
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The Senate may finally try to hold big pharma accountable for the opioid epidemic
Mar 28, 2017 | Vox
By German Lopez
A top Senate Democrat is launching a formal investigation into one of the big culprits behind the nation’s worst drug overdose crisis in history: pharmaceutical companies.
On Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, announced that she is requesting marketing, sales, and addiction study material from the companies behind America’s top five opioid products. The investigation, she said, will draw out the role that opioid manufacturers played in causing the epidemic and letting it continue.
The opioid crisis is extremely urgent. In 2015 alone, more than 52,000 deaths were linked to drug overdoses, with nearly two-thirds of those deaths linked to opioids like OxyContin, Percocet, heroin, and fentanyl. And between 1999 and 2015, more than 560,000 people in the US died from drug overdoses — a death toll larger than the entire population of Atlanta.
It’s unclear just how far McCaskill’s investigation will go or whether Republicans on the committee are on board with her investigation. As USA Today noted, McCaskill will need Republican support on the committee to be able to subpoena opioid makers’ documents should the companies not comply with her requests.
But there’s a good reason for the investigation: Drug manufacturers played a major role in the epidemic. By marketing their opioid painkillers as safe and effective, they convinced doctors to prescribe painkillers in droves to patients. That allowed the drugs to proliferate, leading not just to widespread painkiller misuse but also to the misuse of more dangerous opioids like heroin and illegally manufactured fentanyl. With this, the risk of overdose increased — spawning the opioid crisis we have today.Opioid makers played a big role in getting people hooked on drugs
Perhaps no single data point makes the connection between drugmakers and the opioid epidemic clearer than the following chart from an analysis published in the Annual Review of Public Health, which shows how increases in opioid sales went hand-in-hand with increases in opioid overdose deaths and drug treatment admissions:
Much of this was the result of misleading marketing by major drug companies.
In fact, Purdue Pharma, a producer of OxyContin, in 2007 was forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines due to its false claims about opioids. The Associated Press reported:
Purdue Pharma, its president, top lawyer and former chief medical officer will pay $634.5 million in fines for claiming the drug was less addictive and less subject to abuse than other pain medications, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said in a news release…
Purdue learned from focus groups with physicians in 1995 that doctors were worried about the abuse potential of OxyContin. The company then gave false information to its sales representatives that the drug had less potential for addiction and abuse than other painkillers, the U.S. attorney said.
In wide-ranging investigations, the Los Angeles Times has uncovered more evidence of how Purdue’s misleading advertisement played out at the ground level. They found that Purdue exaggerated the effectiveness and safety of OxyContin, while covering up any criticisms and complaints about the drug. As a particularly egregious example of why Purdue and its marketers did this, one sales memo uncovered by the Times was literally titled “$$$$$$$$$$$$$ It's Bonus Time in the Neighborhood!”
Other opioid makers have faced similar allegations. Insys, a drugmaker, allegedly pushed its fentanyl spray for uses far beyond late-stage cancer pain treatment, according to McCaskill’s office. A sales representative claimed that the company’s informal motto was, “Start them high and hope they don't die.”
Opioid companies have defended their practices in the past, arguing that they have taken steps to try to make their drugs less prone to abuse and altered guidance to physicians to that effect.
Still, drugmakers have lobbied against new restrictions on opioids, and their marketing played a huge role in convincing doctors that opioids were the effective, safe solution to pain. So doctors prescribed the drugs in record numbers, prompting a rapid rise in overdose deaths.The opioid epidemic, explained
The 52,000 drug overdose deaths in 2015 were higher than the annual death tolls of any previous drug crisis, from the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s to past heroin epidemics. To put the death toll in perspective, the 52,000 deaths are higher than the more than 38,000 who died in car crashes in 2015, the more than 36,000 who died from gun violence in 2015, and the more than 43,000 who died due to HIV/AIDS during that epidemic’s peak in 1995.
What makes the current drug crisis unique is that it began with legal drugs, marketed and sold by major pharmaceutical companies.
Back in the 1990s, doctors were persuaded to treat pain as a serious medical issue. There's a good reason for that: About one in three Americans suffer from chronic pain, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine.
Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this concern. Through a big marketing campaign, they got doctors to prescribe products like OxyContin and Percocet in droves — even though the evidence for opioids treating long-term, chronic pain is very weak (despite their effectiveness for acute, short-term pain), while the evidence that opioids cause harm in the long term is very strong.
So painkillers proliferated, landing in the hands of not just patients but also teens rummaging through their parents’ medicine cabinets, other family members and friends of patients, and the black market.
As a result, opioid overdose deaths trended up — sometimes involving opioids alone, other times involving drugs like alcohol and benzodiazepines (typically prescribed to relieve anxiety). By 2015, opioid overdose deaths totaled nearly 32,000 — close to two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths.
Seeing the rise in opioid misuse and deaths, officials have cracked down on prescriptions painkillers. Law enforcement, for instance, threatened doctors with incarceration and the loss of their medical licenses if they prescribed the drugs unscrupulously.
Ideally, doctors should still be able to get painkillers to patients who truly need them — after, for example, evaluating whether the patient has a history of drug addiction. But doctors who weren’t conducting even such basic checks are now being told to give more thought to their prescriptions.
Yet many people who lost access to painkillers were still addicted. So some who could no longer access prescribed painkillers — or perhaps could no longer afford them — turned to cheaper, more potent opioids: heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that's often manufactured illegally for non-medical uses.
Not all painkiller users went this way, and not all opioid users started with painkillers. But statistics suggest many did: A 2014 study in JAMA Psychiatry found many painkiller users were moving on to heroin, and a 2015 analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people who are addicted to prescription painkillers are 40 times more likely to be addicted to heroin.
So other types of deadly opioid overdoses, excluding painkillers, also rose.
That doesn't mean cracking down on painkillers was a mistake. It appeared to slow the rising number of painkiller deaths, and it may have prevented doctors from prescribing the drugs to new generations of people with drug use disorders.
But the likely solution is to get opioid users into treatment. According to 2014 federal data, at least 89 percent of people who met the definition for a drug use disorder didn't get treatment. Patients with drug use disorders also often complain of weeks- or months-long waiting periods for care.
So federal and state officials have pushed for more treatment funding, including medication-assisted treatment like methadone and Suboxone.
Some states, like Louisiana and Indiana, have taken a “tough on crime” approach that focuses on incarcerating drug traffickers. But the incarceration approach has been around for decades — and it hasn’t stopped massive drug epidemics like the current opioid crisis.
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A Senator Is Taking on the Pharma Companies Behind the Opioid Epidemic
Mar 28, 2017 | Mother Jones
By Julia Lurie
On Tuesday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) launched an investigation into how the nation's leading painkiller manufacturers fueled the current opioid crisis—the most deadly drug epidemic in US history.
McCaskill requested internal sales and marketing materials, addiction studies, and details on compliance with governmental organizations from the top five opioid manufacturers: Purdue, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, Insys, Mylan, and Depomed. If the companies refuse to comply, McCaskill would need support from her Republican colleagues on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in order to subpoena the documents.
This is the most far-reaching senate investigation into the opioid manufacturers to date, following a 2012 Senate Finance Committee investigation into payments to pain advocacy groups.
It comes at a time when drug overdoses are killing more Americans than car accidents or gun violence. Of the 52,000 overdose deaths in 2015, two thirds were associated with opiates such as OxyContin, Vicodin, heroin, and fentanyl.
Experts trace the epidemic back to the early '90s, when doctors started treating pain more aggressively. As I wrote last year:
Fueling the storm were pharmaceutical companies, which aggressively—and, in many cases, misleadingly—marketed painkillers to doctors and patients. Purdue Pharma, which introduced OxyContin in 1995, funded more than 20,000 pain-related educational programs between 1996 and 2002, according to an article last year in the Annual Review of Public Health.
Noting that doctors were wary of prescribing opioids because of concerns about addiction, the company funded studies finding that "physical dependence" on opioids is different from addiction and "clinically unimportant." It provided financial backing to the American Pain Society, which introduced the "Pain is the Fifth Vital Sign" campaign, and the Joint Commission, which accredits health care organizations, in addition to other physician and patient groups. Purdue Pharma and its executives were fined more than $600 million in 2007 after they were found guilty of misleading regulators, doctors, and patients about the drug's addictive qualities.
"All of this didn’t happen overnight—it happened one prescription and marketing program at a time," said McCaskill in a statement. "This investigation is about finding out whether the same practices that led to this epidemic still continue today, and if decisions are being made that harm the public health."
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Top Democrat Goes After Drug Makers For Fueling Opioid Addiction
Mar 28, 2017 | Daily Caller
Senators are increasing their scrutiny of major drug manufacturers in light of the national opioid epidemic, alleging pharmaceutical companies intentionally downplayed the risk posed by painkillers.
Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill from Missouri sent letters to the five largest pharmaceutical drug makers asking they produce documents that will clarify their role in rising deaths connected to opioids. Painkillers are implicated in 180,000 fatal overdoses since 2000 and killed 33,000 Americans in 2015. McCaskill claims the companies directly fueled America’s dependence on painkillers by deliberately misleading the public on their safety, reports The Washington Post.
McCaskill sent the letters to Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Insys Therapeutics, Mylan and Depomed, asking for everything from marketing materials and scientific studies to details regarding legal settlements.
“This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful – and often deadly – painkillers,” McCaskill said in the letters, according to The Washington Post. “To achieve this goal, manufacturers have reportedly sought, among other techniques, to downplay the risk of addiction to their products and encourage physicians to prescribe opioids for all cases of pain and in high doses.”
The letters come as the makers of the opioid painkiller OxyContin are facing a lawsuit alleging the company knowingly allowed pills to flow into the black market, feeding addiction. Mayor Ray Stephanson of Everett, Washington is suing Purdue Pharma for gross negligence, claiming the company turned a blind eye to suspicious activities that funneled pills into the streets of Everett, where opioid abuse is now rampant.
Stephanson said “Purdue’s drive for profit” directly fueled opioid addictions in the community and the rising rate of heroin abuse.
Representatives for Purdue Pharma said the lawsuit is a misrepresentation of what sparked the opioid crisis in Everett and “look forward to presenting the facts in court.”
After a number of lawsuits Purdue Pharma reformulated the drug OxyContin in 2010 to reduce the possibility for abuse. In the absence of abusable Oxycontin, former users turned to heroin in large numbers to attain the same high. Researchers from RAND Corp. and the Wharton School concluded abuse-deterrent OxyContin is directly responsible for roughly “80% of the three-fold increase in heroin mortality since 2010.”
The reformulation succeeded in its intended purpose of reducing overall abuse of OxyContin, but it came with disastrous unintended consequences. There are 3.1 more heroin deaths per 100,000 people for every percentage decrease in OxyContin abuse.
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Senator McCaskill Launching Investigation Into Opioid Drugmakers
Mar 28, 2017 | The Street
By Amanda Schiavo
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is looking into the sales and marketing practices of the country's top five drugmakers as part of a larger effort to take on America's opioid crisis.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 91 Americans die every day as a result of an overdose.
"This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share," the Missouri Senator said in a letter to the drug companies, Reuters notes.
McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has asked for internal estimates on the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose of opioids from Johnson & Johnson, (JNJ) Mylan, Purdue Pharma, Insys Therapeutics (INSY) and Depomed. (DEPO)
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Missouri Senator Leads Committee Investigation Into Opioid Manufacturers
Mar 28, 2017 | CBS/Fox Missouri - Ozarks First
By Alisa Nelson
An investigation is underway by a U.S. Senate committee to determine whether pharmaceutical manufacturers have contributed to opioid drug overuse and overprescribing.
Senator Claire McCaskill is the top-ranking Democrat on the committee.
“This killer is not picky. I mean, this is happening in affluent suburbs, it’s happening in rural communities. It’s happening to farm families, it’s happening with families all over our state—where someone has began taking an opioid prescription drug, and then, because heroin is cheaper, they’ve moved onto heroin and then they can’t determine the dosage they’re getting and they end up dead,” says McCaskill.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s investigation will include the manufacturers of America’s top five opioid products based on 2015 sales. In letters to the heads of Purdue, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, Insys, Mylan, and Depomed, McCaskill requested:Documents showing internal estimates of the risk of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose, diversion or death arising from the use of any opioid product or estimates of these risks produced by third-party contractors or vendors.Reports generated within the last five years summarizing or concerning compliance audits of sales and marketing policies.Marketing and business plans, including plans for direct-to-consumer and physician marketing, developed during the last five years.Quotas for sales representatives dedicated to opioid products concerning the recruitment of physicians for speakers programs during the last five years.Contributions to a variety of third-party advocacy organizations.Any reports issued to government agencies during the last five years in accordance with corporate integrity agreements or other settlement agreements.
“We’ve got to figure out how we allowed these pain prescriptions to flood the markets. That begins with the distributors and the manufacturers. You can actually sometimes get a lot more done with an aggressive investigation, with good oversight,” says McCaskill.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths from opioids, including prescription opioids and heroin, reached more than 30,000 in 2015, and sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999.
“I think we can change this country for the better when it comes to this killer, the heroin overdoses, the opioid prescription addiction, by doing the kind of investigation that will hold some people accountable that were trying to make a lot of money off a product that was being overprescribed and eventually causing death,” says McCaskill.
The state House is expected to debate this week, Sikeston Republican state Rep. Holly Rehder’s bill that would create a statewide prescription drug monitoring system. McCaskill supports Rehder’s legislation.
“Representative Rehder’s plan will make a real difference in saving Missouri lives, and I urge state leaders to follow her leadership and do the right thing,” says McCaskill. “We’re finally seeing movement in Jefferson City to crack down on prescription drug shoppers who are fueling the heroin epidemic—and I hope the Legislature will act on it, rather than the half-measure designed to allow folks to say they did something while really allowing this cancer to continue festering in our communities.”
Missouri is the only state in the nation without a prescription drug monitoring program, to look for cases of opioid misuse.
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(UPDATE) Opioid industry draws scrutiny of Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri
Mar 28, 2017 | Kansas City Star
By Bryan Lowry
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri will lead a congressional probe of the opioid industry after executives from one of the nation’s largest opioid manufacturers were charged in a federal racketeering case.
McCaskill, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, sent letters Tuesday on behalf of the committee to the five largest prescription opioid manufacturers based on 2015 sales requesting documents that show internal estimates of the risk of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose or death from opioid use.
The investigation will look at the methods companies used to persuade physicians to prescribe their products and whether the industry downplayed the risks of addiction.
In 2015, more than 15,000 people in the U.S. died from overdoses involving prescription opioids, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which notes that is quadruple the rate of overdose deaths in 1999 and correlates with an increase in prescriptions. If illicit opioids are counted, the total number of overdose deaths from opioids in 2015 rises to more than 33,000, an increase of 4,400 from the year before.
“I think it’s time to look at the manufacturers and find out what they knew about addiction,” McCaskill said in a phone call Tuesday. “What marketing practices did they use to push these drugs?”
The U.S. Department of Justice brought charges in December against six former executives of Insys Therapeutics, one of the largest opioid manufacturers in the country, alleging that they engaged in a nationwide bribery scheme that led to doctors unnecessarily prescribing fentanyl-based pain medication.
For her investigation, McCaskill asked Insys and four other pharmaceutical companies for any reports generated within the last five years concerning compliance audits of sales and marketing policies, documents outlining marketing and business plans, and quotas for sales representatives concerning physician recruitment. Insys did not immediately respond to a request for comment about McCaskill’s probe.
“We know anecdotally there are things that have occurred that are problematic, but we want to find out how widespread it is,” McCaskill said.
She also asked for documentation of the companies’ contribution to advocacy organizations and reports issued to government agencies in accordance with corporate integrity agreements or other settlement agreements.
The other companies that received the document request were Purdue Pharma, Depomed, Mylan and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson.
John Puskar, the spokesman for Purdue Pharman, which manufactures OxyContin, said in an e-mail that the “the opioid crisis is among our nation’s top health challenges, which is why our company has dedicated itself for years to being part of the solution. OxyContin accounts for only 2% of the opioid analgesic prescription market nationally, but we are an industry leader in the development of abuse-deterrent technology and advocating for the use of prescription drug monitoring programs. We are reviewing Senator McCaskill’s letter and will respond accordingly.”
Jessica Castles Smith, the spokeswoman for Janssen, said in an e-mail that the company would address McCaskill's request. She said the company believes it has "acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients regarding our opioid pain medications, which are FDA-approved and carry FDA-mandated warnings about the known risks of the medications on every product label."
Christopher Keenan, the spokesman for Depomed, said the company has received McCaskill’s letter “will cooperate accordingly.”
Nina Devlin, the spokeswoman for Mylan, called on McCaskill to include more opioid suppliers and said that company was only the 17th biggest opioid supplier in 2016. “Despite being a small player in this area, we are committed to helping find solutions to the issue of opioid abuse and misuse,” Devlin said in an e-mail.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the committee, has not signed on to McCaskill’s minority investigation but she said she was hopeful he would participate in the investigation. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that President Donald Trump will tap New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to be chairman of a commission focused on opioid abuse.
“This shouldn’t be about whether this is coming from the White House, or a Republican, or a Democrat. People are dying,” McCaskill said. “Something is wrong here. I welcome Governor Christie and I welcome the president.”
McCaskill contended that opioids have been “handed out like candy” in recent years. She said that she had been prescribed opioids after knee surgery and when she had surgery for breast cancer, but that she flushed the pills down the toilet after a week.
“I was prescribed way more than I needed for the pain and I think that’s another issue,” McCaskill said. “How many pills is a person given when they have their wisdom teeth out?”
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McCaskill sends queries to opioid makers about sales, marketing strategies, donations
Mar 28, 2017 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Chuck Raasch
Sen. Claire McCaskill has written letters to the nation’s top pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioids seeking information on the companies' sales, marketing strategies, internal addiction studies and contributions to advocacy organizations.
McCaskill, D-Mo., is doing so as the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. But she is doing it without the chair of that committee, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., signing on. Advertisement
McCaskill said she wants to know whether the manufacturers “have contributed to opioid overutilization and over-prescription as overdose deaths in the last 15 years have approached nearly 200,000.”
Congress has taken several approaches to address what specialists say is a crisis in opioid use and overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said deaths from opioid prescription and heroin overdose reached 15,000, nationally, in 2015.
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Sen. Claire McCaskill launches probe of opioid manufacturers’ role in epidemic
Mar 28, 2017 | The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
A Senate Democrat said Tuesday she is launching a wide-ranging investigation into prescription drug makers and their role in an opioid epidemic that is ravaging every corner of the nation.
Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said she requested sales and marketing information from the makers of the top-selling, opioid-based painkillers. She also demanded any company reports to government agencies, proof of donations to outside groups and internal analyses of how addictive their products can be.
Despite hyper-partisanship on Capitol Hill, members of both parties have sounded the alarm over the prescription drug and heroin epidemic that resulted in more than 30,000 overdose deaths in 2015 alone.
The problem affects every age group and ethnicity throughout the country, prompting Congress to pass legislation that bolsters treatment and the availability of overdose-reversing drugs.
Studies show that many of the addicts got hooked after they were legally prescribed an opioid. Members of Congress worry that companies push their products too hard or downplayed the risks of addiction.
Ms. McCaskill said companies that went too far should answer for their role in the epidemic.
“All of this didn’t happen overnight — it happened one prescription and marketing program at a time. The vast majority of the employees, executives, sales representatives, scientists, and doctors involved with this industry are good people and responsible actors, but some are not,” said Ms. McCaskill, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “This investigation is about finding out whether the same practices that led to this epidemic still continue today, and if decisions are being made that harm the public health.”
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Sen. McCaskill to lead congressional probe of prescription drug makers
Mar 28, 2017 | KOMU 8 Missouri
As Missouri legislators debate the merits of a state prescription drug monitoring program, five of the nation's largest prescription opioid producers are coming under investigation.
The companies, which include Depomed, Mylan, Purdue Pharma, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Insys, received letters from Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) Tuesday as part of a probe into the pharmaceutical industry by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
The letters request the companies' internal estimates of addiction cases, overdoses and deaths involving prescription opioids each year. The probe also seeks audits of the companies' sales and marketing programs, including information regarding sales quotas.
The investigation is a response to the growing number of prescription drug overdoses and deaths nationwide in recent years.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths from prescription drug overdoses quadrupled since 1999, with nearly 15,000 deaths reported in the U.S. in 2015.
In a statement, McCaskill said, "This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share and increase dependency on powerful — and often deadly — painkillers."
Insys, one of the companies involved in the investigation, was scrutinized by the U.S. Department of Justice last year. The company allegedly bribed doctors to prescribe fentanyl medications, even when those prescriptions were not medically necessary.
In Missouri last year, an estimated 235,000 people misused prescription drugs. Missouri is the only state in the nation without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program, a tracking system that prevents patients from "doctor-shopping" to obtain opioid prescriptions.
Although Missouri has not yet passed a statewide program, several cities and counties throughout the state are building a monitoring network. The Columbia City Council voted to become part of the developing database earlier this month, joining Jefferson City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, Kansas City and a handful of others.
Ron Fitzwater, CEO of the Missouri Pharmacy Association, said he applauds efforts by cities and counties to adopt prescription drug monitoring programs, but a statewide system would be more effective.
"Our concern is if we don't get every county in the state of Missouri as a part of the program, then those folks that want to abuse the system are just going to go to pharmacists in counties that have not adopted the prescription drug monitoring program," Fitzwater said.
The Missouri House of Representatives is expected to begin debate Wednesday on a bill that aims to create a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Holly Rehder (R-Sikeston).
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Mar 28, 2017 | ABC Cincinnati, OH
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/26623850?token=3773361b-ff31-4509-bc29-b711dc619111
Rough transcript: let's catch you up on the now newsfed. are the top makers of opioids to blame for the epidemic we're in right now? a senate comitte just started investigating those claims. the group sent letters to the companies asking for everything from their sales materials to their internal studies on addictions.
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Mar 28, 2017 | NBC Harrisburg, PA
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/26623866?token=3773361b-ff31-4509-bc29-b711dc619111
Rough transcript: health news at 4:00. a democratic u.s. senator is looking into whether drugmakers are contributing to the over-use of pain killers by americans. senator claire mccaskill of missouri is asking u.s. makers of top-selling opioid products for their marketing information, sales records, and drug studies. mccaskill says sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999. this year news 8 is investigating the heroin and opioid epidemic. we call it state of addiction. every month we are focusing on a different topic. in march, we have been investigating how treating sports injuries with opioids can lead to abuse, possibly addiction.
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Mar 28, 2017 | ABC Tampa
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/26623871?token=3773361b-ff31-4509-bc29-b711dc619111
Rough transript: let's catch you up on the now newsfeed. are the top makers of opiates to blame for the epidemic we're in? that's what a senate comittee just started investigating. it sent letters to the companies asking for everything from their sales materials to their internal studies on addictions.
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Mar 28, 2017 | NBC Orlando
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/26623874?token=3773361b-ff31-4509-bc29-b711dc619111
Rough transcript: a democratic senator says she is looking into whether drugmakers are contributing to an overuse of pain killers by americans. senator claire mccaskill of missouri is asking these u.s. manufacturers of top-selling opioid products for their marketing information, sales records and drug studies. she says sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999, and that has taken a financial toll on the government and also a deadly toll on americans.
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Mar 28, 2017 | BNC Kansas, MO
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/26623887?token=3773361b-ff31-4509-bc29-b711dc619111
Rough transcript: missouri senator claire mccaskill is taking new steps to fight the opioid epidemic. she's asking u-s manufacturers of the top-selling opioid products for their marketing information, sales records, and drug studies. the goal: here is to find out if their practices contribute to the overuse of painkillers. senator mc-caskill tweeted today -- in part -- "we have five percent of the world population. 80 percent of opioids. time to get to the bottom of it."
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Mar 28, 2017 | ABC Springfield, MO
View clip here: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/26623889?token=3773361b-ff31-4509-bc29-b711dc619111
Rough transcript: senator claire mccaskill of missouri looking into whether drugmakers are contributing to an overuse of pain killers in the united states. mccaskill is asking us manufacturers of top-selling opioid products for their marketing information, sales records and drug studies. she says sales of prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999... and that has taken a financial toll on the government and a deadly toll on people.
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