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Purdue Pharma accused of 'corrupting' WHO to boost global opioid sales
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Guardian (One of the UK's leading newspapers)
Posted: June 2nd, 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/22/purdue-pharm...
Purdue Pharma, the drug manufacturer that kickstarted the US opioid epidemic, corruptly influenced the World Health Organization in order to boost painkiller sales across the globe, according to a report by members of Congress. An investigation by Katherine Clark and Hal Rogers, who represent districts in Massachusetts and Kentucky hard hit by the US opioid epidemic, accuses Purdue of replicating its false marketing claims about the safety and effectiveness of opioids to change WHO prescribing guidelines in an attempt to expand foreign markets for its drugs. The web of influence we uncovered paints a picture of a public health organization that has been corrupted by the opioid industry, said Clark. The WHO appears to be lending the opioid industry its voice and credibility, and as a result, a trusted public health organization is trafficking dangerous misinformation that could lead to a global opioid epidemic. The report ... accuses Purdue of using pharma-funded organizations and specialists to influence the writing of WHO policy to encourage much wider prescribing of addictive high-strength opioids across the globe. It said that, as a result, WHO guidelines are serving as marketing materials for Purdue. [The] report alleges two WHO guidelines ... contain dangerously misleading and, in some instances, outright false claims about the safety and efficacy of prescription opioids. Alarmingly, these guidelines mirror Purdues marketing strategies to increase prescriptions and expand sales, the report found.
Note: Many doctors also profited from excessive prescribing of dangerous opioids. And according to a former DEA agent, Congress helped drug companies fuel the opioid epidemic. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing news articles on Big Pharma corruption from reliable major media sources.
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