On the show I played a short spoof created using the movie The Sixth Sense. The patient Bruce Willis had "saw dumb people". During my attendance at the September 24th public meeting the FDA moderated a presentation from Purdue Pharma who presented their newest OxyContin formulation. On that FDA Advisory Committee dumb people far outnumbered the intelligent people.
In May, 2008 Purdue touted the formulation as "tamper resistant" and the Advisory Committee in attendance voted to withhold approval at that meeting. Where else but Washington can a company bring back the exact same product, essentially call it the same thing and say it is not tamper resistant, but better. Thousands continue to become addicted or die after swallowing the OxyContin product whole and the entire meeting was focused on the small percentage of people who will crush and inject the pill. The committee asked few questions or appeared concerned about the inherent dangers of OxyContin. One doctor on the committee said that he many times suggests opioids to a patient and he is dismayed that they are afraid of the drugs.
In fairness, there were four members out of the nineteen in attendance who decided they had enough of the Purdue rhetoric. However, the remaining 14 (one abstained) followed the Purdue path of acceptance for the new product. Purdue led them to believe the "new" product would be safer.
Pete Jackson, Ed Vanicky, Steve Hayes, Paula Hayes (on behalf of Sandra Kresser) and myself contributed convincing evidence that Purdue could not be trusted and the product is not as safe as Purdue was presenting. The 14 knuckleheads in attendance on the Advisory Committee did not appear concerned about our concerns or probable repercussions if Purdue is allowed to unleash another deadly product out to the American Public.
In the meeting Purdue assured the committee members that they would not market or suggest that the new OxyContin formulation would be marketed as "safer". Shortly after the meeting the Associated Press had this headline: "FDA Backs New Abuse-Resistant OxyContin Formulation".
The final decision for the new formulation rests with the FDA. Is the FDA going to put as much trust into Purdue as the Advisory Committee? We wait.
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