Why we support a comprehensive approach to addressing the opioid crisis
By Purdue Pharma
For more than 25 years, Purdue Pharma has developed opioid medications. While these prescription medications can help patients with severe chronic pain when other treatment options are inadequate, we are acutely aware of the risks opioid pain medications can create: even when taken as prescribed, they carry risks of addiction, abuse and misuse that can lead to overdose and death. We are deeply concerned about the toll the prescription and illicit opioid crisis is having on individuals and communities across the nation.
It is our hope that increased attention on the disease of addiction will instigate the necessary resources and innovation needed. We should all be encouraged by the recent government efforts to focus much needed resources on minimizing misuse and abuse, and reducing new addictions to prescription opioids.
As a prescription opioid manufacturer, we support a comprehensive approach to reducing addiction, abuse, diversion, and overdose related to opioids.
We support demonstrated competence requirements for opioid prescribing and policies to limit the duration of first opioid prescriptions. We believe that society will benefit from policies focused on ensuring prescribers and pharmacists have the information and tools to appropriately prescribe and dispense these powerful medications. And we believe prescription opioids should be prescribed only when other treatment options are inadequate and at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest duration.
We urge prescribers and pharmacists to register and use prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and are encouraged to see that this important tool is being supported by Congress. Purdue supports efforts to improve PDMP utility for clinicians, including the ability to access data across state lines. To aid in this effort, we provided funding to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to develop a platform that allows states to share PDMP data with other states, to reduce the cost of interoperability for the states.
We believe that increased adoption of electronic prescribing of controlled substances can help protect patients by reducing medication errors caused by illegible prescriptions or oral miscommunication. It may also reduce diversion by making forging or altering prescriptions difficult and reduce theft of written prescriptions and prescription blanks. Unlike traditional paper prescriptions, electronic prescriptions cannot be copied or stolen, and they are more difficult to alter or forge. 1,2
We support increased awareness of the importance of handling prescription opioids safely. According to the 2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 53 percent of people who misused prescription opioids got them from friends or family.3 Policies focused on limiting the amount of excess medications available for possible abuse or diversion stand to have a meaningful impact on the crisis.
Efforts underway at the federal level to educate teens and young adults about the risks of prescription opioid abuse are an important step toward preventing new cases of addiction. The White House also recently launched an education campaign that will further amplify important information about the risks of opioid addiction that can occur even when patients take medicines as prescribed.4
We support increasing awareness about the risks of prescription opioids and do so as a member of the Prescription Drug Safety Network, a public-private initiative created by EVERFI, a leading prevention education innovator. This network, and its diverse coalition of stakeholders, is providing students across the country with access to interactive sessions and self-guided activities to empower students with knowledge, skills, and strategies to help prevent prescription drug misuse and abuse.
We support efforts to expand the use of the opioid reversal agent naloxone, including: greater availability for use by law enforcement and other first responders; appropriate civil immunity to persons aiding in a potential overdose situation (“Good Samaritan” laws); and ability to obtain naloxone without a prescription.5,6 We provided funding to the National Sheriffs’ Association, a non-profit organization of law enforcement professionals, to enable them to offer naloxone kits and training free of charge to law enforcement agencies across the country.
We believe that all stakeholders — healthcare leaders (including opioid manufacturers), business leaders, policymakers and public health officials — must continue to come together to drive meaningful solutions forward. While no single intervention alone will solve this crisis, partnerships, determination, and innovative approaches are steps in the right direction.
