OxyContin maker closely guards its list of suspect doctors

[alp227]

Source: LA Times

Over the last decade, the maker of the potent painkiller OxyContin has compiled a database of hundreds of doctors suspected of recklessly prescribing its pills to addicts and drug dealers, but has done little to alert law enforcement or medical authorities.

Despite its suspicions, Purdue Pharma continued to profit from prescriptions written by these physicians, many of whom were prolific prescribers of OxyContin. The company has sold more than $27 billion worth of the drug since its introduction in 1996.

Purdue has promoted the idea that the country's epidemic of prescription drug deaths was fueled largely by pharmacy robberies, doctor-shopping patients and teens raiding home medicine cabinets. The database suggests that Purdue has long known that physicians also play a significant role in the crisis.

Purdue's database, which contains the names of more than 1,800 doctors, could provide leads for investigators at a time when they are increasingly looking at how reckless prescribing of painkillers contributes to addiction and death.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rx-purdue-20130811,0,5485540,full.story

[gtar100]

1. Hey, why kill the cash cow, eh?

What a surprise. Not.

[Skittles]

2. painkiller$

[Snake Plissken]

3. How does the FDA not already have this data?

http://www.policymed.com/2013/06/fda-building-a-prescription-drug-and-marketing-database.html

Purdue Pharma does not directly sell to these doctors yet they know which ones are the drug dealers, but the FDA doesn't know because until now they have been unable to get funding and approval to build a very simple database to trend abusive prescription drug sales. The Pharma Lobby has been successful in stopping it, and they will probably make sure it never goes live.

[groundloop]

4. Rush is paying them to be silent

Doesn't want to endanger his supply.

[Javaman]

5. lots of "doctor feelgoods" these days. nt

[4Q2u2]

6. Over Production

The manufacterer was also making many more pills that were being prescribed. Where did they think those pills would go? Kind of like a fall off the truck prescription market. It is always great when your Governemnt conspires against it's people to help big business.






http://stash.norml.org/dea-allowed-1200-increase-in-oxycontin-manufacturing-during-medical-marijuana-era
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/11/as_abuse_mounted_dea_boosted_painkiller_supply/

[damyank913]

7. Purdue"s database is it's own and should not be subject to govt scrutiny...

...people do drugs. PERIOD. Some need them. Some don't. That's life. I, for one, am glad that people have this potent pain killer available to them.

[tridim]

10. Tell that to my dead friend's family. nt

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. Are you willing to explain that a wee bit?

.
.
.

I know from recent experiences that Oxycontin,

known mostly by Percocet or ""perks" up here is the best pain-killer for me.

Other pain-killers give me various side effects,

Perks, - none.

Yet our doctors cut me off long before the pain is gone.

Was not one of the main mantras of Doctors to ease pain and suffering?

Well, they ain't doing it, not by a long shot.

Yep, I could get a friggen heart transplant at no cost -

But our "caregivers" will let me suffer in pain afterwards.

All as a result of their overblown concern about addiction to percs.

Take care of the friggen pain first,

then worry about any addiction issues afterwards.



CC

[hunter]

8. For every doctor prescribing opiates recklessly...

... there's a couple of doctors who are not treating their chronic pain patients adequately because they are fearful of unjustified persecution.

That's a lot of hurt.

We've got to stop treating drug addiction as a crime and start treating it as a public health problem. The profit has got to be removed from criminal behavior. It's not just the drug dealers making these profits, it's the entire industry built around the enforcement of ineffective and punitive drug laws -- prisons, police, all of it.

If there was no big money in the business there would be fewer sketchy pill-prescribing doctors, no overproduction of brand-name drugs by equally sketchy paharmaceutical corporations, and nobody committing crimes to pay for their addictions. Most importantly, patients who actually need these medications to remain functional would be more likely to get the help they need.

[kurtzapril4]

9. The #1 undertreated condition in the US

is pain. Doctors are so afraid to prescribe pain meds that many, many people have to live with un-treated pain. I'm sorry that people Dr. shop, or that teens rifle through their relatives medicine cabinets and OD, but that's not, and shouldn't be, my problem. Many people have a legitimate need for narcotic pain meds in order to be productive, and they shouldn't be penalized for the behavior of others.

[Socal31]

12. Just see who they take on golfing trips.

Then you'll know who is on the list.

[grilled onions]

13. Good vs Bad

When my back herniated and I needed to relearn how to walk three steps to get into the house Oxy was part of the treatment. PT would have been even rough without it. While their is abuse with almost everything few things are always threatened with being banned. For example many drink and drink with horrible results but they do not ban the license of those who do not choose to drink and drive. New dangerous fads like swallowing cinnamon does not make the grocery store a pusher of sorts.
People should be held responsible for their own actions and others should not be punished. Doctors should be able to give Oxy to patients that they know truly are in pain and can responsibly take that drug. Neither doctor nor patient should be punished for what is supposed to be a legal drug.
On the other hand doctors who turn it into a side line money maker are abusing the drug and making society "ill" by their ways. Perdue should have come clean long before now. They are not innocent in all of this either.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. That's like blaming the Jim Beam distillery for drunk driving deaths nt