[mabub24]

Perdue Pharma, the producer of Oxy, is basically making half of its customers into drug addicts by lying about "12-hours" of "effective" pain relief.

The LA Times ran an investigation into Perdue Pharma's claim[1] and the article is incredibly disturbing. This is the killer quote:

> "More than half of long-term OxyContin users are on doses that public health officials consider dangerously high, according to an analysis of nationwide prescription data conducted for The Times."

Perdue Pharma has been lying about the 12-hour pain relief effect for decades. They wanted to dominate the 12-hour pain relief market. Whenever a doctor prescribed for a smaller interval of time, Perdue screamed bloody murder and sought to "refocus" doctors at all cost on the "12-hour rule" to ensure the drug stays in the 12-hour market share. To "refocus" doctors, Perdue Pharma tells doctors to prescribe stronger doses, rather than more frequent ones, and this leads to serious problems with reliance.

[1]: http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/

[rattray]

Relevant excerpts from the linked article:

> when it doesn’t last, patients can experience excruciating symptoms of withdrawal, including an intense craving for the drug.

> Even before OxyContin went on the market, clinical trials showed many patients weren’t getting 12 hours of relief.

> OxyContin’s market dominance and its high price — up to hundreds of dollars per bottle — hinge on its 12-hour duration. Without that, it offers little advantage over less expensive painkillers.

> Purdue tells doctors to prescribe stronger doses, not more frequent ones, when patients complain that OxyContin doesn’t last 12 hours.

> Research shows that the more potent the dose of an opioid such as OxyContin, the greater the possibility of overdose and death.

[andreasgonewild]

From my perspective, OxyContin is obviously designed to be as addictive as possible; and they have been lying all along. These people are not fully functioning humans, they will do whatever it takes to generate more profits. I promised myself to never touch their artificial crap again; if it doesn't grow on the ground, I'm not interested.

[alkonaut]

Medication is thruroughly tested and there are plenty of good painkillers that aren't as addictive. Many are synthetic of course, and still have known side effects.

The evil here isn't that the drug is addictive but that doctors and pharmaceutical companies prescribe it despite the known side effects. It's almost unheard of outside the US.

[andreasgonewild]

They're tested by the same psychos that created the drugs and their bought fan club, otherwise things like Oxy would never have made it to market. It's worth repeating, big pharma is all about creating return customers; nothing that comes out of that mess is ever going to solve problems.

[alkonaut]

If it was the case that these people somehow rigged the testing to make it seem less harmful (which isn't that far fetched), then that would be the scandal. But it isn't. This is known, even in the US.

This thing is known to be this addictive. That's basically only prescribed in exceptional cases elsewhere in the world. Basically it's not prescribed to otherwise healthy people who only suffer from pain (back pains, surgery pains etc). It's only prescribed to terminally ill people. Because it's better to use a slightly less potent painkiller and be in slightly more pain, than to be addicted to an opioid.

[sooheon]

So what does that say about the medical practitioners on the front lines prescribing this shit at these insane levels? Hippocratic oath means nothing? Kickbacks from the pharma companies too sweet to ignore?

[pas]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15522455

[refurb]

You do realize that if Purdue talked about any other dosing regimen other than 12 hours that would be illegal off-label promotion right?