Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fatal Flaws Of OxyContin Offer New Insight Into Addiction
The drugmaker Purdue Pharma launched OxyContin two decades ago with a bold marketing claim: One dose relieves pain for 12 hours, more than twice as long as generic medications. Patients would no longer have to wake up in the middle of the night to take their pills, Purdue told doctors. One OxyContin tablet in the morning and one before bed would provide “smooth and sustained pain control all day and all night.” On the strength of that promise, OxyContin became America’s bestselling painkiller, and Purdue reaped $31 billion in revenue. But OxyContin’s stunning success masked a fundamental problem: The drug wears off hours early in many people, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. (Ryan, Girion and Glover, 5/5)
Meanwhile a panel of advisers says the Food and Drug Administration should change its risk-management programs for opioid painkillers and the U.S. surgeon general speaks about the worsening epidemic —
Dozens of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday unanimously called for the agency to rethink its approach to opioid abuse amid a worsening epidemic nationwide. (Ferris, 5/4)
Doctors who prescribe painkillers should be required to undergo training aimed at reducing misuse and abuse of the medications, according to federal health experts, though they acknowledge the challenge of putting such a mandate in place. The group of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously Wednesday that the agency should change its risk-management programs for opioid painkillers, highly addictive medications at the center of a national epidemic of addiction and abuse. (Perrone, 5/4)
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Wednesday called for more robust training for doctors who prescribe opioids, highlighting the medical community's role in combatting addiction. (Ferris, 5/4)
And media outlets report on the crisis in the states —
A bill aimed at tackling the epidemic of opioid and heroin abuse won final passage in the Senate Tuesday night. It now goes to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who plans to sign it. (Levin Becker, 5/4)
Say you suspect your loved one is using heroin or some other opioid and you’re worried about them overdosing. If a new bill making its way through the state legislature becomes law, you’ll be able to walk into any pharmacy in the state and get access to a drug that blocks opiate overdoses. (Hoban, 5/4)
Seattle police say bicycle officers have saved three people from potentially fatal heroin overdoses since they started carrying an overdose-reversal drug in mid-March. (5/4)
