Trump stages drug intervention...

[The Scotsman]

Trump tells America theres a drug problem..... in fact its a national public health emergency.......well shit.....who'd of thought it!
Get out there folks...it stops now...and we're going to do....to do....errrmm....do.....what?
Ah.... well it only lasts 3 months so its not important really.

 

[Old_Trapper70]

"John Kapoor, 74, who stepped down as chief executive of Insys in January, was charged with having engaged in conspiracies to commit racketeering, mail fraud and wire fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in Boston. He was arrested in Arizona, where Insys is based, and added as a defendant in a previously filed case against six former Insys executives and managers, including former Chief Executive Michael Babich, prosecutors said. Brian Kelly, Kapoor’s lawyer, said in an email: “My client is innocent and he intends to fight these charges vigorously.”

Insys, which has been in settlement talks with the US Justice Department in connection with the probe, declined to comment. Its stock price fell more than 20 percent to $5.92 in midafternoon trading on Thursday. The charges marked a major escalation of the ongoing investigations of Insys related to Subsys, an under-the-tongue spray that contains fentanyl, a highly addictive synthetic opioid.

Those probes have come amid a national opioid abuse epidemic. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were involved in over 33,000 deaths in 2015. The death rate has continued to rise, according to estimates. Kapoor, who founded Insys in 2002 and remains a board member, stepped down in January as the company’s chairman and chief executive, a role he took on in November 2015. He is currently the chairman of drugmaker Akorn and president of investment firm EJ Financial Enterprises.

According to the indictment, following the launch of Subsys in 2012, Kapoor and Babich grew dissatisfied with the drug’s success in its initial three months on the market. It says they, with others, devised a scheme to pay bribes in the form of speaker fees and food and entertainment to medical practitioners to prescribe Subsys and to increase the dosage and volume of existing prescriptions. They also sought to mislead and defraud insurers who were reluctant to approve payment for Subsys when it was prescribed to patients who did not have cancer, the indictment said."

http://nypost.com/2017/10/26/billionaire-pharma-founder-arrested-in-us-opioid-scheme/

 

[Old_Trapper70]

https://www.thenation.com/article/fighting-the-opioid-epidemic-by-targeting-big-pharmas-bottom-line/

"The Teamsters, whose members have struggled with the crisis of both illegal and legal opioid abuse, are wielding their shareholder power to link Big Pharma’s primary distributors to the logistical chain swelling opioid markets to a breaking point. At the August shareholder’s meeting of pharmaceutical wholesaler McKesson, the union leadership, as direct share owners, called for reforms to the company’s supply-chain monitoring and rejected a pay raise for its CEO. They have issued a similar call before the board of drug giant AmerisourceBergen, demanding that the company investigate its sales practices and review its executive-compensation levels.

The Teamsters might be known for a tough blue-collar image, but members have lately been sharing heart-rending stories of how the trauma of opioid addiction has consumed their families. Many of the Rust Belt strongholds where their locals have community ties have seen a surge of overdose deaths, along with the joblessness and dwindling treatment resources that deepen their exposure to the crisis. The Teamsters see the massive opioid death toll as having structural roots in the overprescribing of painkillers. A profit-driven medical industry has for years been feeding medication dependencies that often rapidly spiral into illegal heroin use. The pattern of induced dependency is perpetuated by a severe lack of comprehensive, community-based social supports for treatment, preventive care, and basic economic aid in many struggling working-class regions."

Others will fight the fight, and then Trump will take credit for any benefit created.

 

[PLC1]

Trump tells America theres a drug problem..... in fact its a national public health emergency.......well shit.....who'd of thought it!
Get out there folks...it stops now...and we're going to do....to do....errrmm....do.....what?
Ah.... well it only lasts 3 months so its not important really.

I dunno.. what to do, what to do... I know! Obama's fault! All else is fake news.