https://potent.media/history-of-the-opium-wars |
Purdue Pharmaceuticals
has been in the middle of a firestorm of controversy regarding its role in the
epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States. As is often the case, once a case of
death-inducing corporate profiteering rises high enough on the public radar,
everyone from John Oliver to Stephen Colbert to headline grabbing U.S.
Attorneys jump on the bandwagon decrying the evils of the Sackler family. And let’s face it: Mortimer Sackler and his
off-spring knew that they were selling a drug that would lead to addictions. And recently, they have been awarded a 20
year monopoly on the treatment of the very addictions from which they profited.
In their December 22,
1997 patent filing (U.S. Patent 6,277,384 filed by Robert F. Kaiko and Robert D.
Colucci – both of Connecticut - with the assistance of Davidson, Davidson &
Kappel LLC based in New York City), they acknowledge the engineering of
compounds that are engineered to optimize analgesic effects in human patients
that are classifed as “physically dependent addicts“. Navigating through the
thorny addiction minefield of all opioids, they stated that “preferably, the
amount of naltrexone included in the oral doage form is less positively
reinforcing (e.g., less “liked“) to a non-physically dependent opioid addict
than a comparable oral dosage form without the antagonist included“. By 2001, knowledge of opioid abuse and dosage
tampering led Purdue’s researchers (working for Euro-Celtique SA – a Luxembourg
company) to invent “bittering agents“ to make drug abuse less palatable (U.S.
Patent 7,141,250).
Several of Purdue’s
early opioid patents were set to expire at the end of 2018. But courtesy of the United States Patent
& Trademark Office and the United States Food & Drug Administration
accommodations and complicity in protecting Purdue’s monopoly on death, subtle
modifications to the formulation with no substantive new invention have
extended the company’s proprietary position until the mid-2020s. Oxycontin®’s march of death will continue to
enrich Purdue years after their addiction engineering plans should have expired.
Purdue’s recently
granted patent holds an ominous calculus.
In U.S. Patent 9,907,793, they confidently assert
that the public trade-off between abuse and benefit justifies the use of the drugs. “Especially
the physical dependence of patients suffering from pain to opioid analgesics
leads to the development of tolerance, meaning that upon extended intake,
increasingly higher doses of the pain relieving agent have to be taken by the
patient, in order to experience pain relief. The euphoregenic effect of opioid
analgesics often leads to the abuse of pain relievers. Drug abuse and
psychological dependence are a common phenomenon, especially among teenagers.
These dangerous effects are especially caused by the substances with strong
analgesic capacity, and can range from undesired habituation to fully developed
addiction. However, these substances are legitimately used for medical purposes
and medicine
cannot do without them.”(emphasis added)
And, a little
trip down memory lane – if we can be lucid enough to take that journey – would suggest
that the inevitability of opioid use and its associated addiction just comes with
the territory. Since Portuguese sailors started
mixing opium and tobacco in the 16th century leading to the economic
rise (and fall) of a fair few empires to Frederich Sertuerner’s definition of
opium’s active ingredient in 1803, countless mercantile forces have preyed on
the addictive properties of opioids.
Merck & Co began its commercial manufacturing of morphine in the 1820s
and Britain’s Dr. Alexander Wood started shooting it up in 1843. At the turn of the most recent millennium, reportedly over 89 million prescriptions were written in the U.S. And, not surprisingly, Shire Pharmaceutical’s
U.S. Patent 7,375,082 notes that “as prescription numbers rise, the number of
emergency room visits and deaths from overdose increase correspondingly.” This was written in 2002! Get with the program Colbert and Oliver! The profiteering on this death has been
around a lot longer than the satire that now seeks to profit on the evils of
the profiteers!
For nearly two
decades, medicine has seen over 500 patents issued to address minimizing or
preventing opioid addiction and abuse.
But as Dr. Lynn Webster published in Pain Medicine (Vol 10:Supp2,
July 2009), “none of these formulations are currently commercially available.” Ironically, the publication of her paper was
brought to you by…, you guessed it… a pharmaceutical company!
Let’s be
clear. Purdue has published in its
patent filings its knowledge of addiction and abuse risk for nearly two
decades. With Massachusetts, New York,
Tennessee, Oregon, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Florida
joining the rush to prosecute Purdue Pharma, several parties may be worth
considering as “co-conspirators”. The
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has approved patents that clearly set forth
evidence of knowledge of drug abuse. The
U.S. Food & Drug Administration (charged with safe-guarding the public) has
supported monopolistic distribution of a harmful substance. What precisely makes their complicity less
odious than that of a bishop covering up sex abuse in the church? Why is it that we’re allowing agencies of the
U.S. government a pass for letting this epidemic get out of control when they’ve
directly supported the very company responsible for selling a harmful
substance?
Oh, maybe because
we like to pretend that we disapprove of the death and carnage associated with
drug abuse but our state health care programs, tax authorities, and “health
care” companies are enriched by the suffering of millions.
We are not
serious about the pain and suffering caused by opioids any more now than we
were when we saw our modern political and economic systems hatched in opium
dens. If any of the states or litigating
parties want to get to the root of the problem, they’re ignoring the evidence
that is publicly available from two U.S. government agencies that have been complicit
in making the abuse possible.
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Well Done !
ReplyDelete😳OMG Dave! Under EVERY rock there appears to be yet another CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY ... deliberately committed by the pharmaceutical industry ... AND approved by the government agencies they have captured!
ReplyDeleteTHANK🤗YOU for your exhaustive research and bravery in continuing to enlighten the public!
Ldydi❤