statnews | The warning signs of what would become a deadly opioid epidemic
emerged in early 2001. That’s when officials of the state employee
health plan in West Virginia noticed a surge in deaths attributed to
oxycodone, the active ingredient in the painkiller OxyContin.
They quickly decided to do something about it: OxyContin
prescriptions would require prior authorization. It was a way to ensure
that only people who genuinely needed the painkiller could get it and
that people abusing opioids could not.
But an investigation by STAT has found that Purdue Pharma, the
manufacturer of OxyContin, thwarted the state’s plan by paying a
middleman, known as a pharmacy benefits manager, to prevent insurers
from limiting prescriptions of the drug.
The financial quid pro quo between the painkiller maker and the
pharmacy benefits manager, Merck Medco, came to light in West Virginia
court records unsealed by a state judge at the request of STAT, and in
interviews with people familiar with the arrangement.
“We were screaming at the wall,” said Tom Susman, who headed the
state’s public employee insurance agency in the early 2000s and led the
push to limit OxyContin prescribing in West Virginia.
“We saw it coming,” he said of the opioid epidemic,
which today causes 28,000 overdose deaths a year in the United States.
“Now to see the aftermath is the most frustrating thing I have ever
seen.”
Overprescribing of OxyContin and other opioid painkillers is blamed for helping to plant the seeds for the current opioid crisis.
West Virginia has been hit harder than any other state: It suffers the
highest per capita drug overdose death rate in the country — more than
double the national average. It also has one of the highest rates of
painkiller prescribing.
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