Sometimes they get you coming and going

With the opioid crisis so much in the news the last few years, Purdue Pharma – creators of OxyContin – has also come in for its share of press – mostly because there are dozens or states and cities suing the company for their role in getting folks hooked on Oxy and off into the god-awful world of addiction. Pull-pusher extraordinaire, Purdue stands accused of over-promoting their product, too much on the benefits, too little on the risks.

There’s certainly something to the claims:

In federal court in 2007, three top current and former employees for Purdue pleaded guilty to criminal charges, admitting that they had falsely led doctors and their patients to believe that OxyContin was less likely to be abused than other drugs in its class, according to the New York Times. Then earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported that Purdue planned to stop promoting the drug. (Source: Washington Post)

Good of them to stop promoting OxyContin. But now it looks like Purdue conveniently had yet another drug up its sleeve that will take some of the financial sing out of putting a halt to promoting their big profit-maker.

Richard Sackler, former chairman and president of Purdue Pharma, became a billionaire thanks to OxyContin – the development and marketing of which he oversaw. And now, bless his inventive little brain and heart, he’s gotten a patent for a new drug that – get this – helps addicts get off of opioids.

The Financial Times reported that Sackler, whose family owns Purdue Pharma, a multibillion-dollar company, patented a new drug earlier this year that is a form of buprenorphine, a mild opioid that is used to ease withdrawal symptoms.

The patent description, in fact, talks about the “undesired characteristics of opioids”, i.e., “psychological as well as physical dependence.” It also notes that “drug addicts (“junkies”)” tend to get involved in “drug-related criminal activities.”  Thus the need for Sackler’s new wonder drug, which is regarded as preferable to methadone as an opioid substitute.

Certainly, it’s good news that there’s a new kid on the block that may be able to help all those living, breathing actual kids on the block. You know, the kids next door who’ve gotten hooked on OxyContin after it was prescribed for, say, a high-school athletic injury, and ended up escalating to heroin because it’s cheaper and more readily available than OxyContin. But there is something colossally galling about the folks that bear so much of the responsibility for getting those living, breathing actual kids hooked to begin with profiting from “the cure.”

Maybe Pharma/Sackler will do the right thing and donate the proceeds from their new patent to education and treatment.

In the meantime, am I the only one thinking of the old joke about the fellow who kills his mother and father, then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he’s an orphan?

You know, there are always some people out there who get you going and coming…