Big Pharma’s hidden opioid payments revealed

A shocking new investigation has found that despite all of the proposals for stemming the tidal wave of opioid abuse and its deadly consequences, money not only talks… but it appears to have the last word.

This analysis found that Big Pharma is still rewarding doctors who prescribe the lion’s share of these drugs – and doing so very handsomely.

You would think that by this point, with the knowledge that almost 200,000 Americans have died due to prescription opioid drugs during the last 16 years, drugmakers would be ashamed of behaving this way.

But with one notable exception, it’s business as usual.

It’s quite obvious that doctors and drugmakers are still pushing these deadly meds like there’s no tomorrow.

And for many of the patients who take them, the sad truth is that there won’t be.

The opioid trap

Angela Cantone thought that her doctor was looking out for her best interests in coping with the abdominal pain from Crohn’s disease when he prescribed a “simple and easy” way to treat it.

The South Carolina pain specialist gave Cantone the powerful opioid drug Subsys, promising that “it would do wonders” for her.

Well, it did a lot more than that.

As Cantone describes it, she was soon in a “zombie-like” state that made it unsafe for her to be alone with her three kids.

She frequently blacked out, and she’d wake up later on the kitchen floor or front lawn. And missing one day of the drug was out of the question, as that would cause constant vomiting and diarrhea.

That’s how easily these highly addictive opioids get you in their vise-like grips.

And yes, she told her doctor about what Subsys was doing to her, even asking for another kind of med. But he refused, claiming that those horrible side effects couldn’t be the result of taking the drug.

What Cantone didn’t know was that in just a little over a year, her doctor had received nearly $200,000 from Insys, the company that makes Subsys. And he wasn’t the only one whose check from Big Pharma was in the mail!

Now, an investigation by Harvard researchers and CNN has discovered that drugmakers who manufacture opioids are still sending off huge payments to the doctors who prescribe them.

Of course, paying docs for “speaking and consulting,” sending them on fancy vacations, or buying them ritzy dinners is nothing new – and it’s all perfectly legal.

But this analysis found that there’s a direct connection between how often a physician prescribes an opioid and the size of the payout.

The drug industry, as expected, is saying that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this and that the doctors, who are most experienced with opioids, understand them better and are teaching other professionals about how to prescribe them safely.

Baloney!

To show the real intent of these payments, look no further than the biggest player in the opioid game, Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin and Butrans.

That company dumped its “speakers program” for those drugs over a year ago and said that it will “no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers.”

That’s right, “promoting,” not teaching or helping to discourage their use.

As for Cantone, after two years on Subsys, she somehow managed to get herself off of the med, a nearly impossible feat. Even if you’ve never taken one of these drugs before and think that it couldn’t hurt just to use a small amount after surgery or dental work, remember: The “opioid naïve,” as they’re called, are in the greatest jeopardy of becoming addicted.

As I’ve told you, any type of surgical procedure puts you right in the crosshairs of becoming a chronic opioid user.

That makes it more important than ever that you stop, ask, and listen before accepting any kind of Rx to treat any kind of pain.

So, before you take a med prescribed to you for pain, first ask your doctor or pharmacist if it’s an opioid drug. If so, ask for another option.

And that doesn’t have to be a pharmaceutical.

More and more doctors, and even the feds, are turning to acupuncture as a proven way to relieve pain. The VA medical system has been offering this age-old method to veterans as an option for years now, along with some state Medicaid programs (but not yet Medicare).

“The more opioids doctors prescribe, the more money they make” March 12, 2018, CNN, cnn.com