Tuesday, November 21, 2006

FDA Allows Off-Label Narcotic Sales

The narcotic lollipop known as Actin, made by Cephalon, is approved to treat cancer pain.  Its sales are booming, likely to hit 600 million dollars this year.  Fewer than 20% of the drug sales are for cancer pain.  Most are for off-label use such as headache, remedies widely promoted by the company’s sales force and in company-sponsored physician training vacations.  The sales crew also promotes starting patients on eight times the recommended starting dose.

Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, is actively investigating the issue.  Apparently, so is the U.S. Attorney General’s office in Philadelphia and the FDA.  Why is the Wall Street Journal able to detail the breadth and depth of this illegal sale of powerful narcotics while the FDA moves at the pace of a snail?  How many Americans have to become addicted to a drug and their lives ruined before the FDA acts?  How many Americans have to be poisoned by doctors before we all realize the medical profession has become little more than a group of glorified drug company sales reps?  Doctors are now willing to poison our children with dangerous antipsychotics or addict almost any patient to narcotics in the name of pain management.  While many good doctors exist, some form of chemotherapy is needed to clear the profession of its MDiety syndrome.