Every crisis provides an opportunity, as the sayin
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Posted On: 12/12/2020 10:45:14 PM
Every crisis provides an opportunity, as the saying goes, and opioid addiction is no different. So lets take a little walk down memory lane.
Big Pharma, always angling for the next blockbuster drug made the most of the opioid crisis. The industry introduced a new drugs—and is raising the price on older generics—that treat the effects of opioid addiction. In this way it can reap additional profits from the opioid epidemic that it helped to create.
The U.S. opioid painkiller market is worth an estimated $10 billion per year. The emerging market for drugs that treat opioid side effects, addiction, and overdose is already worth half that much. And it is poised for major growth in the years ahead.
It should come as no surprise that drug companies put profits before the public welfare. But Big Pharma’s attempts to capitalize on the worst drug crisis in U.S. history shows how nothing is off limits for the industry in its quest to create top-selling medications.
One of the most controversial moments of Super Bowl 50 did not occur on the field, but during an advertising spot.
The black and white ad—sponsored by AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, the U.S. Pain Foundation, and others—showed a forlorn man reacting to visual reminders of his constipation while a narrator intoned, “If you need an opioid to manage your chronic pain, you may be so constipated it feels like everyone can go… except you.” I am not kidding folks, this ad really did air at Super Bowl 50.
Opioid induced constipation (OIC), the narrator explained, is “different, and may need a different approach.”
That approach, according to the commercial, was the use of medication—such as AstraZeneca’s and Daiichi Sankyo’s Movantik—specifically designed to treat OIC.
The Super Bowl ad spurred a backlash (and humorous takes) on social media, with many saying it normalized opioid use. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin tweeted that Big Pharma had “no shame” and was trying to “exploit a crisis for profit.”
But the ad was a success: AstraZeneca reported that Movantik prescriptions increased by one-third in the months following the Super Bowl. A single Movantik pill retails for about $10.
Opioid induced constipation reportedly afflicts 40-90 percent of opioid users. Researcher Jonathan Moss came up with an OIC treatment in the late 1990s to help cancer patients taking opioid painkillers. Drug companies, however, were not interested in a product that targeted such a limited patient pool.
So, as the opioid epidemic spread, drugmakers changed their tune, and now they are scrambling to enter a market that has blockbuster potential. The market for treating opioid addiction.
Just a note for those interested. Incredibly, the U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but consumes 80 percent of all opioids. This may provide some insight into the opioid problem.
Kgem
Big Pharma, always angling for the next blockbuster drug made the most of the opioid crisis. The industry introduced a new drugs—and is raising the price on older generics—that treat the effects of opioid addiction. In this way it can reap additional profits from the opioid epidemic that it helped to create.
The U.S. opioid painkiller market is worth an estimated $10 billion per year. The emerging market for drugs that treat opioid side effects, addiction, and overdose is already worth half that much. And it is poised for major growth in the years ahead.
It should come as no surprise that drug companies put profits before the public welfare. But Big Pharma’s attempts to capitalize on the worst drug crisis in U.S. history shows how nothing is off limits for the industry in its quest to create top-selling medications.
One of the most controversial moments of Super Bowl 50 did not occur on the field, but during an advertising spot.
The black and white ad—sponsored by AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, the U.S. Pain Foundation, and others—showed a forlorn man reacting to visual reminders of his constipation while a narrator intoned, “If you need an opioid to manage your chronic pain, you may be so constipated it feels like everyone can go… except you.” I am not kidding folks, this ad really did air at Super Bowl 50.
Opioid induced constipation (OIC), the narrator explained, is “different, and may need a different approach.”
That approach, according to the commercial, was the use of medication—such as AstraZeneca’s and Daiichi Sankyo’s Movantik—specifically designed to treat OIC.
The Super Bowl ad spurred a backlash (and humorous takes) on social media, with many saying it normalized opioid use. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin tweeted that Big Pharma had “no shame” and was trying to “exploit a crisis for profit.”
But the ad was a success: AstraZeneca reported that Movantik prescriptions increased by one-third in the months following the Super Bowl. A single Movantik pill retails for about $10.
Opioid induced constipation reportedly afflicts 40-90 percent of opioid users. Researcher Jonathan Moss came up with an OIC treatment in the late 1990s to help cancer patients taking opioid painkillers. Drug companies, however, were not interested in a product that targeted such a limited patient pool.
So, as the opioid epidemic spread, drugmakers changed their tune, and now they are scrambling to enter a market that has blockbuster potential. The market for treating opioid addiction.
Just a note for those interested. Incredibly, the U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population but consumes 80 percent of all opioids. This may provide some insight into the opioid problem.
Kgem
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