How Big Pharma is hindering treatment of the opioid addiction epidemic quoting : Salon

Drugs do exist to reverse opioid overdoses or treat long-term opioid addiction. I study the pharmaceutical industry, and I see how drug companies are able to play games that keep competition out and prices high. Lack of access to addiction treatment drugs like Suboxone can be traced, in part, to the soaring prices, access problems and anti-competitive conduct that has become business as usual in the pharmaceutical industry across the board. Complex schemes to hold off generic competition are widespread throughout the pharmaceutical industry, as I have found in my research. The games pharma plays, sort of like Monopoly®Legislators on both sides of the aisle have decried sky-high drug prices, but it can be hard to pin down the specific behavior to address.



How Big Pharma is hindering treatment of the opioid addiction epidemic
(Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)What do Americans think should be done about the opioid crisis? John Kasich (R-Ohio), and public health professionals have pressed the federal government to invest more to combat the crisis. How do voters think about opioid addiction, and where do they stand on the potential solutions? Most Americans believe opioid addiction is a problemThere's a widespread consensus that opioid addiction is a pervasive national problem. Opioid addiction is viewed with more sympathy than addiction to other substances, like crack cocaine.

Struggling with addiction in an opioid 'treatment desert'

Wide 'treatment deserts' across CaliforniaExperts recommend medication-assisted treatment for drug users like Menzel, one of nearly 2 million Americans struggling with opioid addiction, whether to prescription pills or heroin. Like half the counties in California, the valley is an opioid "treatment desert.""In rural areas, historically, there has been a lot of stigma around addiction treatment," said Kelly Pfeifer, a primary care doctor and opioid project director at the California Health Care Foundation. For now, expanding opioid treatment in this area, and eastward, will have to wait. California's opioid death rate is relatively low: Still, 1,966 Californians died of an opioid overdose in 2015. "It is very important for someone in the middle of addiction to access treatment when they are ready," said Pfeifer.


collected by :Lucy William

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