MO Sen. Claire McCaskill Issues Report On Opioid Investigation

ST. LOUIS, MO — Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has issued a sweeping report on ties between opioid manufacturers, doctors and advocacy groups. The report, which was produced by the committee's Democratic minority, alleges those payments may have influenced groups like the U.S. Pain Foundation, Academy of Integrative Pain Management, and the American Cancer Society''s Cancer Action Network to minimize the risks of chronic opioid use.

“The pharmaceutical industry spent a generation downplaying the risks of opioid addiction and trying to expand their customer base for these incredibly dangerous medications and this report makes clear they made investments in third-party organizations that could further those goals,” McCaskill said. “These financial relationships were insidious, lacked transparency, and are one of many factors that have resulted in arguably the most deadly drug epidemic in American history.”

McCaskill's report is the first detailed look at the monetary connections between the pharmaceutical industry, medical community and health advocacy groups related to opioids and how those connections may have influenced public policy and contributed to a national opioid crisis.

The report found that five leading opioid manufacturers — including Purdue, Janssen, Depomed, Insys and Mylan — contributed nearly $9 million to physicians and advocacy groups over five years. Those same groups then lobbied against laws directed at curbing abuse and against holding physicians and industry executives accountable for opioid over-prescription and off-label use.

For example, the American Academy of Pain Medicine issued guidance to patients in 2009 that said "opioids are rarely addictive when used properly." That group took $1.2 million for opioid manufacturers during the period the report examined. The report mentions several other examples of similar incidents.

“The fact that these same manufacturers provided millions of dollars to the groups described [in this report] suggests, at the very least, a direct link between corporate donations and the advancement of opioids-friendly messaging," the report claims. "By aligning medical culture with industry goals in this way, many of the groups described in this report may have played a significant role in creating the necessary conditions for the U.S. opioids epidemic."

The report criticized health advocacy groups for their lack of transparency. Because of the way they are treated by U.S. tax laws, such groups have no obligation to publicly disclose their donors.

“The financial relationships between these groups and opioid manufacturers should be clear to the general public,” McCaskill said. “We passed a law ensuring the public had information on payments to doctors by pharmaceutical companies, and I can’t imagine why the same shouldn’t be done in this space.”

The senator has called for a crackdown on opioid manufacturers and distributors suspected of wrongdoing.

President Donald Trump has spoken often of the opioid crisis, declaring in a public health emergency last year. A bipartisan budget deal passed this month includes $6 billion to fight the opioid crisis over two years, which experts say falls short of the amount required, but is better than nothing. The president's recent budget proposal, if passed, would dedicate even more money to fighting opioid addiction, but it would also repeal the Affordable Care Act and slash Medicare and Medicaid, kicking many off the insurance they use to get addiction treatment.

More than 42,000 Americans die from opioid overdoses every year, and 40 percent of those deaths involve a prescription drug, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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