I'm not saying Purdue acted like an angel, but their actions are twisted into a sinister plot.
Sinister plot? It's very simple economics: Our drug has one distinguishing factor from other drugs: 12 hour dosing. If our drug loses that distinguishing factor, no one will prescribe it.
It's a basic economic incentive.
No one is claiming Purdue wanted to addict patients. They're not that evil. They're just a massive corporation focused on making money.
If Oxycontin didn't work with a 12 hour interval, why did the FDA approve it for that? Why is it in the label if it couldn't be supported by clinical trial data? Was the FDA asleep at this switch?
Three obvious explanations immediately spring to mind: Fraud, incompetence, and/or corruption.
It's not as though the FDA hasn't approved many drugs over the years with dubious efficacy.
1) insurance companies won't pay for it [since it's not in the label], 2) some pharmacies won't fill a script for anything but Q12h dosing [because it's not in the label], 3) FDA/DEA oversight [because it's not in the label], 4) minimize diversion and abuse.
The first three are problems for doctors doing the prescribing, not Purdue. None of those explain Purdue's actions, save that it might reduce the number of pills sold... which is exactly what I'm claiming is their motivation for pushing their dosage schedule.
The fourth is literally the problem caused by the dosing schedule pushed by Purdue... so you'll forgive me if I struggle to believe they were especially concerned about addiction or abuse.
We'll just have to agree to disagree, but one last point:
The first three are problems for doctors doing the prescribing, not Purdue.
I used to work in biotech, those three problems are exactly what pharma companies spend their time trying to solve. Writing a script is just the first step in the process. Insurance needs to agree to pay for it, pharmacies need to fill it and you don't want the FDA/DEA closing you down.
Sinister plot? It's very simple economics: Our drug has one distinguishing factor from other drugs: 12 hour dosing. If our drug loses that distinguishing factor, no one will prescribe it.
It's a basic economic incentive.
No one is claiming Purdue wanted to addict patients. They're not that evil. They're just a massive corporation focused on making money.
If Oxycontin didn't work with a 12 hour interval, why did the FDA approve it for that? Why is it in the label if it couldn't be supported by clinical trial data? Was the FDA asleep at this switch?
Three obvious explanations immediately spring to mind: Fraud, incompetence, and/or corruption.
It's not as though the FDA hasn't approved many drugs over the years with dubious efficacy.
1) insurance companies won't pay for it [since it's not in the label], 2) some pharmacies won't fill a script for anything but Q12h dosing [because it's not in the label], 3) FDA/DEA oversight [because it's not in the label], 4) minimize diversion and abuse.
The first three are problems for doctors doing the prescribing, not Purdue. None of those explain Purdue's actions, save that it might reduce the number of pills sold... which is exactly what I'm claiming is their motivation for pushing their dosage schedule.
The fourth is literally the problem caused by the dosing schedule pushed by Purdue... so you'll forgive me if I struggle to believe they were especially concerned about addiction or abuse.