xpost - U.S. Senate panel launches investigation of painkillers, drug companies [View all]

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U.S. Senate panel launches investigation of painkillers, drug companies
by John Fauber of the Journal Sentinel

The U.S. Senate Committee on Finance has opened a bipartisan investigation into financial relationships between companies that make narcotic painkillers and various nonprofit organizations that have advocated their use for the treatment of pain.

Citing reports by the Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today and others, the committee is seeking financial and marketing records from three companies that make opioid drugs, including OxyContin and Vicodin, and seven national organizations.

(snip)

The senators said there was growing evidence that drug companies have promoted misleading information about the safety and effectiveness of the drugs with help from nonprofits they have donated to.

"Recent investigative reporting from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today and ProPublica revealed extensive ties between companies that manufacture and market opioids and nonprofit organizations such as the American Pain Foundation, the American Pain Society, the American Academy of Pain Medicine, the Federation of State Medical Boards, the University of Wisconsin Pain and Policy Studies Group and the Joint Commission," Grassley and Baucus wrote.

(snip)

The newspaper reported that the nonprofits pushed for expanded use of the drugs while taking in millions of dollars from the companies that made them.

(more at the link: http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/us-senate-panel-launches-investigation-of-painkillers-drug-companies-4u5arr1-150767225.html)