America's #1 Online Cigar Auction
first, best, biggest!

The pharmaceutical company that produces the painkiller OxyContin is slashing its sales staff and says it will halt, effective Monday, promotion of opioids to physicians and other health care professionals.

The decision by Purdue Pharma comes as the industry battles an avalanche of lawsuits across the nation related to the opioid crisis.

“We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," Purdue Pharma said in a statement.

Indra Cidambi, medical director at the Center for Network Therapy detox program in New Jersey, said she was encouraged by Purdue's announcement. But she warned that tightening the prescription supply already has illegal drug dealers turning out more pills that look like branded prescription meds but can be even more dangerous.

"The decision by a manufacturer to stop pushing opioid pain medications is late, but better late than never," Cidambi told USA TODAY. "Even if we save one life due to this decision, it is worth it."

Purdue's head of medical affairs, Monica Kwarcinski, sent a letter to prescribers updating the company's efforts to support responsible opioid use.

"Effective Monday, February 12, 2018, our field sales organization will no longer be visiting your offices to engage you in discussions about our opioid products," Kwarcinski said in the letter, which was released to media outlets. "Requests for information about our opioid products will be handled through direct communication with the highly experienced health care professionals that comprise our Medical Affairs department."

Purdue said in a statement it is reducing its sales force by more than 50%. The remaining 200 sales reps will focus on non-opioid drugs such as Symproic, the company said. Symproic is used to treat opioid-related constipation.

The company said it has consistently followed opioid guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, which include a recommendation that opioids not be the first option for chronic pain.

Purdue, a privately held company based in Stamford, Conn., has been slammed with lawsuits claiming the company has downplayed OxyContin's addiction risk. Opioid litigation increased sharply in 2017 when hundreds of cities, counties and states sued opioid makers, wholesalers, distributors and marketers.

The lawsuits accuse the companies of, among other things, misleading prescribers and the public by marketing opioids as a safe substitute for non-addictive pain medications such as ibuprofen. Opioids also have been blamed for a resurgence in heroin use.

The government claims the results have been tragic — and left government agencies with millions in social and health care costs.

Purdue said in a statement that it "vigorously denies" allegations of misconduct, adding that its products account for only "approximately 2%" of all opioid prescriptions.

"We are deeply troubled by the opioid crisis, and we are dedicated to being part of the solution," the company said.

Opioids are substances that work on the nervous system in the body or specific receptors in the brain to reduce the intensity of pain. The CDC says more than three out of five drug overdose deaths involve opioids — and that annual deaths from heroin and prescription opioids have increased more than five-fold since 1999, including 42,000 deaths in 2016.

Purdue and three former executives pleaded guilty in federal court a decade ago to criminal charges of misleading the public about the addictive nature of OxyContin, paying more than $630 million in fines and penalties.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/02/11/oxycontin-maker-cuts-sales-staff-wont-hawk-drug-docs/327251002/

---

It's about f*cking time! But it's only a start.

Disturbing that oxy actually had such a large "field sales organization" that it's news that 50% of their drug dealers are out of a job.

Guessing too that a number of our politicians just took a cut in pay to their election campaigns.

I was prescribed oxycontin while hospitalized and it worked really well. Hope it is available if I ever need it again.

I understand how much good medication does. I also fully recognize how bad medications can be, especially when big pharma deceives the public and doctors on its side-effects.

Rfenst there are much better options. This drug can go away forever and we would be better for it.

More and more it’s looking like the perceived effects of opioids are overstated and there are better options. There are some legitimate medical personnel that think they are flat out worthless especially given the side effects.

One of my first projects was trying to reduce the use of Propoxyphene. Docs and dentists didn’t want to admit it but it was no better for pain than Tylenol but had all the bad narcotic side effects.

It’s now off the market and gone. Righfully so. Oxys days are numbered. It’s effect on pain are way overstated.

Or with folks such as me with taking Ibuprofen can be very very deadly.

Well if it really doesn’t do as they claim then an alternative isn’t really an issue.

More and more the thought is opioids don’t do for pain what folks think. One you figure out the upside is a false narrative the downside becomes much less tollerable. That was the issue with Propoxyphene.

In a few years we will be rolling our eyes at the upside of opioids in my opinion. There will always be some that won’t beleive it. Same with Propoxyphene, but at some point you move past those folks.

Bwahahah, I am not quite there yet but when I get there I will give you a buzz.

Nah your liver and kidneys will do it for me.

Oxcy does nothing for me, for that matter neither does Vicodin. Oddly enough Percocet does.

Yeah, Ibuprofen and Naproxen are no goes for me due drug interactions with heart medications. Isn't it interesting how different our physiologies can be as it relates to medication.

I'm cool if more info pops up. I'll gladly tell you you were prescient... :)

I can't take Nsaids, although not for any drug interaction.
For me it's Tylenol.
Or extra strength Tylenol.

If I break my back I want to know I can get the proper medication and I that won't be limited because some other doctor was cavalier with his Rx pad or some other patient lied about phantom pains in order to capitalize on the street value.

I'm funny like that.

Poetic justice...

Not 100% related... but apparently the dog fell down the stairs yesterday afternoon. We got home and he was limping pretty badly...

So... trip to the vet last night. They gave him a shot of hydromorphone for pain.

The dog was up until 3am whimpering and wheezing. Note... he wasn't whimpering before the morphine. Something about the drug was causing him to whimper in a weird way, don't know if it was the effect it had on his breathing or what. But the drug did appear to have no positive impact on his pain....

A sample size of 1 dog isn't gonna change my mind. But it's interesting to me. I can see how there can be instances where this drug is prescribed and essentially ineffective (or negatively effective)

And more importantly the lies and misleading information distributed by big pharma.
Then there's the Dr's that will prescribe large amounts of opioids to anyone who complains about the slightest pain. As long as the Dr gets paid for the office visit, and also the return office visit, what does he care. Its a guaranteed return customer.

The opioid crisis is simply not because of "the abusive nature of people".

-The economic toll of the opioid crisis is estimated to have topped $1 trillion from 2001 through 2017, a new report says.

-The economic fallout from the epidemic of heroin and prescription painkiller abuse is on track to cost $500 billion from 2018 to 2020 alone.

-More than 62,000 Americans are believed to have fatally overdosed from opioids in 2017.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/12/economic-cost-of-the-opioid-crisis-1-trillion-and-growing-faster.html

Probably cheaper than a cigar addiction...

Yeah, that was my attempt at being facetious.

I can dig it. I knew a guy who was hooked on those for a while. I don't know what mg he was getting, but I do know that he was paying around $20 a pill. It's sad to see what addiction does to people.

When my son was born, it was a tough birth.... wife ended up in the hospital for 8 days, boy was in the special care unit... in the midst of it all, something happened to my back, not sure what, but i couldn't stand up, couldn't walk unless i was bent completely at the waist..

Went on for months with no explanation... it'd get a little better and then way worse... i had no idea what to do... couldn't even mow my own lawn, my 70 year old neighbor was doing it for me... it was embarrassing quite frankly...

And then my doctor introduced me to a little pill... a Kaiser doctor, not some pill pusher... it started with hydrocodone but after probably 3 months nothing was better and the hydro wasnt cutting it anymore... it was weird... made me feel good and let me function but the pain was still there every morning...

So i was prescribed oxy... by the grace of God i didn't like how high it got me... way way too f'd up... so i went back to hydro and eventually ran out and couldn't get refilled... my sister's husband is actually the one who convinced me that a lot of the pain and misery was actually coming from the pills (he'd broken his neck in a parasailing accident and went through the same thing)...

Not sure i have a point there other than to say i was one of those dipsh*ts who took the pills and easily could've become an addict... nothing of my own doing that stopped me, just they fact that i couldn't handle the high... probably could've worked my way into it slowly but for whatever reason i didn't...

Went through some issues about 2 years ago, maybe less, and went looking for the pills to give them another try... pretty sure my mom and wife conspired against me and trashed them... it's nice to have good women in my life...

I was very surprised to find out how many doctors in my lifetime that do not know me is willing to go there first thing as well. Of course after a long period of time they come to realize this is not the case. They realize that of what I am speaking is sometimes (sometimes being a keyword) the possible outcome of addiction and the ill side effects are not no wheres near the dangers of the absolute outcome of being without them.

Now we live in a society where that blanket statement is assumed first thing and end of story when it comes to medical treatment. In a huge way you just really kind of proved my point joking or not. The sad thing is we now have medical professionals that do the exact same thing right off the bat. Typically once this opinion is formed well then it like most other things, it becomes fact when it is not the case.

Then of course I get very frustrated because I see what is suppose to be "Educated people" falling for the same BS as the rest of the layman's meaning "willing to make a blanket statement without facts to back it up for that person.

1) Is it the typical yes
2) Is it always the case for this particular person NO

but once number one is hit, number 2 never hardly ever comes into the thought or process and it is done without fact.

What is really sad is, My thoughts on this is not even for me. Its for those that I have seen suffer in ways that in my mind are horrific. I have seen children die right before my eyes, I have seen adults do the same. To watch one live in pain (no I am not talking of stubbed toes) well lets just say at times it can give a man bad bad thoughts on what should be done especially when that patient is begging for death. But, when all you can do is watch and walk off all because some nut job thinks his, hers or the "facilities" opinion of well at least they won't be addicted.

Ok gots to go again. Getting way to deep for me and this is one thing I do not have the capability to switch off.

Peace brothers and sisters

A heroin addict, a fentanyl addict, and a drug dealer are sitting in a car. Who is driving?

The police.

Odds are the cop could be on something.

Huh? MACS if you are referring to 42 and 44

You may be right, Tim. My perspective is certainly one sided.

I was prescribed norco when I had shoulder surgery. Way more drug than I really needed, and did not use most of it. It came with a warning label, and a list of side effects... as is required by law, right?

This is addictive, it's an opiate, it's gonna plug you up , etc, etc...

We drink whisky and beer... knowing full well it's bad for our liver and kidneys and has adverse effects on our health. What's the difference?