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On Friday, the Financial Times reported that billionaire pharmaceutical magnate Richard Sackler had been granted a patent for a new drug to treat opioid addiction.
The drug, a buprenorphine reformulation, is essentially a lighter opioid that can alleviate weaning symptoms during weaning while competing variants already generate nearly $ 900 million in sales in the United States.
Sackler's family also owns Purdue Pharma, the company that developed OxyContin, a potent narcotic analgesic that caused the epidemic of opioid addiction that decimated communities across America. .
In other words, Sackler has made millions of dollars in sales of a drug that has caused a massive public health crisis – and he is now ready to make millions by selling the public a solution.
Purdue, one of the many pharmaceutical companies that have campaigned for decades to obtain a liberal prescription for opioids, is currently facing a string of lawsuits. Prosecutors in several states claim that Purdue was aware of the risk of addiction and overdose, but misled doctors and patients and minimized the risks associated with increased sales, which society denies. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey directly appoints several members of the Sackler family as defendants.
The National Institute of Drug Abuse estimates that up to 12% of opioid patients develop an abuse disorder and that 6% of them eventually end up with heroin. More than 115 people a day are now killed by opioid overdoses.
Rural areas have been particularly affected, with an astonishing 74% of farmers saying that they or someone they know are suffering from opioid addiction.
Although the increased availability of drug treatment is a good thing, it is not a solution to the epidemic. Opioids remain a necessary tool for treating severe pain related to surgery, cancer and other serious illnesses, but they must be used judiciously and alternative therapies must be implemented, especially in rural areas. low income.
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