WASHINGTON _ Opioid manufacturers funneled millions of dollars to patient advocacy groups that in turn issued "opioid friendly" guidance and policy recommendations, a congressional report concludes.
Five major pharmaceutical manufacturers paid nearly $10 million to 14 patient advocacy groups and medical professional societies �� and affiliated doctors �� who were working on opioid-related issues between 2012 and 2017, according to the report released Monday by Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee's top Democrat.
After receiving the money, those groups minimized the risk of addiction, promoted opioid use, lobbied against legislation that would curb abuse and fought attempts to hold physicians and industry executives responsible for over-prescribing opioids, the report says.
Most of the groups that received manufacturers' money also opposed the first national standards for prescription painkillers issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2016, according to the report. The CDC's guidelines recommended limits on opioid prescriptions for chronic pain �� "a key federal response to the ongoing epidemic," the report says.
It accuses the groups of playing "a significant role" in creating the conditions that led to America's deadly opioids epidemic.
"These financial relationships were insidious, lacked transparency, and are one of many factors that have resulted in arguably the most deadly drug epidemic in American history," McCaskill said.
Some of the advocacy groups and professional societies mentioned in the report pushed back against the suggestion that receiving money from manufacturers "amplified and reinforced messages favoring increased opioid use."
Professional medical societies rely on numerous sources of revenue, including membership dues, registration fees, educational grants, sponsorships and the sale of exhibit space and advertising, the American Academy of Pain Medicine said in a statement.
"While the Academy has a policy that helps to ensure appropriate standards of accuracy are maintained in these transactional messages, it does not impose strict editorial control over them," the statement said.
Regarding grants, the academy said accrediting standards "require that professional medical societies exclude industry from any influence, direct or indirect, over speakers and educational content."
More than 42,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses last year. In Missouri, about 60 percent of drug overdose deaths in 2016 involved opioids, according to the Missouri Hospital Association.
McCaskill's report is based on information provided by the five opioid manufacturers and 14 advocacy groups to the committee at her request last year. Her committee staff says in the report that the data might not capture the full extent of payments between manufacturers and advocacy groups and professional societies because the Internal Revenue Service does not require such groups to disclose their donors.
Purdue Pharma, one of the manufacturers, noted in a statement on Monday that it is no longer promoting opioids.
"We have supported third-party organizations, including with annual dues and unrestricted grants, that are interested in helping patients receive appropriate care," said Robert Josephson, a Purdue spokesman.
A Mylan spokeswoman, Lauren Kashtan, said: "Over the past few years, Mylan made very limited payments to the American Pain Society solely as part of its participation in the organization's annual conferences. We did not sponsor or fund any speakers or presentations at these conferences."
The American Pain Society, a nonprofit professional organization that supports pain research and treatment, said it needed more time to review the document and craft a response.
A spokeswoman for another manufacturer, Janssen Global Services, said while the company cooperated with McCaskill and provided her staff with information, "we have not yet received a copy of her the final report and can't comment on its content."
Pharmaceutical company Depomed said in an email it "believes it has a strong Compliance program in place that oversaw the marketing, advertising and corporate sponsorship activities tied to the Lazanda and Nucynta franchises."
The report cites Dr. Richard Payne, a physician affiliated with the Kansas City, Mo.-based Center for Practical Bioethics, for "criticizing the CDC guidelines as the product of 'conflicts of interests in terms of biases (and) intellectual conflicts'" while himself maintaining "financial links to numerous drug companies."
The center received $145,095 from Purdue and $18,000 from Janssen, according to the report.
"Over the course of the last five years support from the pharmaceutical and device manufacturers represents less than 5 percent of the center's operational support," John G. Carney, president and CEO of the center, said in a statement.
Carney said he hadn't seen McCaskill's full report and so couldn't comment on it.
