You have full permission to forward or reprint as long as author bylines are included.

A People's Chemist Alert: Oxycontin Makers Escape Jail

Shane Ellison, M.Sc.

The People's Chemist © 2007

http://www.thepeopleschemist.com/

Home of the Stinky Sulfur Award

Street thugs selling crack and hippies peddling marijuana get life in jail.  Corporate drug dealers who kill and addict far more people escape jail by paying small fines.  This is Western Medicine at its best.  At its worse, the Food and Drug Administration aids corporate drug dealers by looking away as they profit and destroy the lives of millions.  Such is the case with Oxycontin (oxycodone HCl controlled-release).  

In the beginning, Purdue Pharma L.P. insisted that Oxycontin be used only for cancer pain.  In 1995, the FDA approved it for that very reason.  Since, then however, the addicting drug has been used outside of its intended purpose thanks to false advertising on behalf of Purdue Pharma L.P.  Company heads have pleaded guilty:

"The maker of the powerful painkiller Oxycontin and three of its current and former executives pleaded guilty Thursday to misleading the public about the drug's risk of addiction, a federal prosecutor and the company said."

Here are the nasty details:

To spark early sales of the drug, Purdue circulated false DTC advertising through its endorsements of Oxycontin in the world's most prestigious medical journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).  The FDA sent a letter to Purdue Pharma stating that the company was in clear violation of the regulations. It's violation: making unsubstantiated claims of effectiveness and grossly overstating the safety profile of Oxycontin while promoting it for obtaining a "Life with Relief."  Despite Purdue Pharma's non-compliance with the law, the FDA did not press charges.  As a result, the false marketing continued.

Putting wealth before health, Purdue Pharma L.P. distributed 15,000 copies of an Oxycontin video to physicians without submitting it to the FDA for review.

Entitled I Got My Life Back: Patients in Pain Tell Their Story, the video presented pain relief experiences of various patients and the pain medications, including Oxycontin, that they had been prescribed.  FDA regulations require pharmaceutical manufacturers to submit all promotional materials for approved prescription drug products to the FDA at the time of their initial use.  Since Purdue Pharma L.P. did not comply with this regulation, the FDA did not have an opportunity to review the video to ensure that the information it contained was truthful, balanced, and accurately communicated.  Purdue and the FDA acknowledged the oversight of not submitting the video to the FDA for approval.  Again, no action was taken!

Releasing a second version of the video, Purdue Pharma L.P. followed legal procedure by submitting it to the FDA for review. However,  in its report to Congress the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) stated that the FDA failed to review the video.  Are you kidding me?  Later, it was discovered that the company, as with the first video, made unsubstantiated claims and minimized the risks associated with taking Oxycontin - AGAIN.  Most astounding, Purdue Pharma L.P. claimed that Oxycontin had been shown to cause addiction in less than 1 percent of patients - a damned lie.

Purdue Pharma sold $1 billion worth of Oxycontin in less than five years from the time of its approval, thanks to false advertising.  In addition to profits, false marketing has led to devastating effects on those people who were prescribed Oxycontin under the wrong conditions.  Consider that the number of people who used Oxycontin for illicit purposes at least once increased from 399,000 to 957,000 in a single year.[ii]

Recognizing the dangers of Oxycontin, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has listed Oxycontin as a Schedule II controlled substance in the USA.  According to the DEA, since its release on the market the annual number of prescriptions for the "synthetic morphine" has risen from about 300,000 to nearly 6 million. During that same period, the number of oxycodone-related deaths has skyrocketed by 400%. Currently, Oxycontin is the number one prescribed Schedule II narcotic in the United States.

Exactly how Oxycontin works in the body is not understood, but its dangers are well documented.  Oxycontin is an opioid agonist (narcotic) which possesses powerful addictive properties.  These addictive properties are akin to heroin and morphine and know no boundaries of destruction. Its addictive nature can smother even the strongest of wills.  Oxycontin produces respiratory depression. Additionally, oxycodone causes a reduction in motility associated with an increase in smooth muscle tone in the antrum of the stomach and duodenum. As a result, digestion of food in the small intestine is delayed or nonexistent, and propulsive contractions are decreased, culminating in constipation and the backup of fecal matter. 

While the FDA has played Paper Tiger by acknowledging Purdue Pharma's indiscretions and giving them a small fine, the agency has done nothing to curtail them - like throwing the bums in jail along with the street thugs. 

About the Author

Shane Ellison holds a master's degree in organic chemistry and has first-hand experience in drug design. After abandoning his career as a medical chemist, he dedicated himself to stopping prescription-drug hype. He is an internationally recognized authority on therapeutic nutrition and author of Health Myths Exposed, The Hidden Truth about Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs and The AM-PM Fat Loss Discovery. His books and FREE Life Saving Health Briefs can be found at http://www.healthmyths.net/.

[i] Letter to Michael Friedman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Purdue from Thomas W. Abrams, R.Ph., MBA, Director Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications. MACMIS ID# 11400

[ii] Health and Human Services press release. September 5, 2002. http://162.99.3.50/news/newsreleases/020905fs_survey.htm