Prop - Pharmaceutical Companies Are Primarily Responsible For The Opioid Crisis

Introduction: According to the US National Archives, during the Vietnam War,
there were 58,220 fatalities from 1956-1976. However, in 1999-2017, there were
more than 700,000 opioid overdoses that lead to death. As we can see, this is a
very great issue, In 2017, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including
prescription opioids and illegal opioids like heroin and illicitly manufactured fentanyl)
was 6 times higher than in 1999. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental
death in the United States, surpassing guns and even car accidents. On average, 130
Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. Every 24 minutes, there is one
opioid-related death. So who started this mess? Well, it was a company called
Purdue Pharmaceuticals, which, more than 20 years ago, started the deadly
opioid epidemic. Hello, my name is , I and my team are on the proposition side of
the debate today, we strongly believe that pharmaceutical companies are
primarily responsible for the opioid crisis.
Roadmap: As the first speaker in the debate, I will be stating our limitations on
the topic that our team has for the debate today. Then I will be bringing up the 2
points that our team has for the debate for today. Our second speaker will refute
what points that the other team brings up. After that, he will be strengthening our current
points. Our third speaker will be refuting what our opponents have said and then state
the impact of the debate, and then weigh both sides and show why we should win. Our
two points for the debate today are 1, Purdue Pharma and Johnson and Johnson
mislead the society and FDA. Our second point is Purdue and McKesson did not
care about the health of their patients.
Limitations: We will be limiting this topic to 3 companies’ faults, Purdue

Pharmaceuticals, Johnson and Johnson, McKesson. These were the main
companies that were responsible for this crisis. We believe that without Purdue
Pharma, Johnson and Johnson and McKesson, this opioid crisis would not have
been as major of an issue that it is right now. Both companies mislead society
and were not honest about the claims they made about the drug. As a result,
Purdue had to pay 635 million dollars in fines and Johnson and Johnson had to
pay 572 million. McKesson had to pay 100 million. But the damage was already
done.
Contention 1: Onto our first point which is Purdue Pharma and Johnson and
Johnson is mislead the society and the FDA. While Purdue makes a variety of
products, its main focus is on pain management. And its best-selling pain
medication is OxyContin, a supposedly long-acting form of oxycodone.
Introduced in 1996, it was heavily promoted as being relatively safe from abuse,
and long-acting. This meant that it would be useful for chronic pain, with a
twice-a-day dosage. According to NCBI, both of these claims were false. Yet, the
drug was promoted heavily as if they were true. That was the false advertising,
otherwise known as lying to the public. This was the reason for the first wave of
the crisis. The first wave the false advertising of the drug made by Purdue. The
second wave was the doctors overprescribing these drugs, because they
believed the false advertisements, of the drug being no addictive, and
overprescribed the drugs. The result of these two waves is the third wave, which
is patients getting addicted and misuse of opioids. Purdue mounted an
aggressive marketing campaign that included a warning from the FDA in 2003
over misleading advertisements. Physicians believed Purdue and started using
Oxycontin, thinking they were helping patients. According to an article in the Wall
Street Journal, The Joint Commission went so far as to publish a guide
sponsored by Purdue Pharma on pain management. This guide reportedly stated,
“Some clinicians have inaccurate and exaggerated concerns about addiction,
tolerance, and risk of death. This attitude prevails despite the fact that there is no
evidence that addiction is a significant issue when persons are given opioids for
pain control.” Johnson and Johnson acted similarly. Johnson & Johnson carried
out a year-long marketing campaign that minimized the addictive painkillers' risks
and promoted their benefits. The state's lawyers had called Johnson & Johnson
an opioid "kingpin" and argued that its marketing efforts created a public
nuisance as doctors over-prescribed the drugs, leading to a surge in overdose
deaths in Oklahoma. Johnson & Johnson vigorously denied wrongdoing, arguing
that its marketing claims have scientific support and that its painkillers,
Duragesic and Nucynta, made up a tiny fraction of opioids prescribed in
Oklahoma. Judge Thad Balkman, of Cleveland County District Court in Norman,
Oklahoma, said prosecutors had demonstrated that Johnson & Johnson
contributed to a "public nuisance" in its deceptive promotion of highly addictive
prescription painkillers. "Those actions compromised the health and safety of
thousands of Oklahomans. The opioid crisis is an imminent danger and menace
to Oklahomans," he said in his ruling.
Contention 2: Our second point focuses on Purdue Pharmaceuticals and

McKesson. Purdue and McKesson did not care about the health of their patients,
endangering them. In May 1997, the year after Purdue Pharma launched
OxyContin, its head of sales and marketing sought input on a key decision from
Dr. Richard Sackler, a member of the billionaire family that founded and controls
the company. Michael Friedman, the marketing executive, told Sackler that he
didn’t want to correct the false impression among doctors that OxyContin was
weaker than morphine because the myth was boosting prescriptions — and
sales. “It would be extremely dangerous at this early stage in the life of the
product,” Friedman wrote to Sackler, “to make physicians think the drug is
stronger or equal to morphine.” They put their business over the lives of their
consumers, they wanted to make money over the product. “I agree with you,”
Sackler responded. This lead to doctors overprescribing the drug because they
thought it would not be as harmful. Ten years later, Purdue pleaded guilty in
federal court to understating the risk of addiction to OxyContin, including failing
to alert doctors that it was a stronger painkiller than morphine, and agreed to pay
$600 million in fines and penalties. This has resulted in 200,000 overdose deaths
related to prescription opioids since 1999 because the doctors thought it was
weaker than morphine and prescribed more. What McKesson did was different.
This was mainly because of McKesson’s carelessness and they would not admit it until
the investigation found out. They allegedly concealed security flaws in its supply
chain, which fueled the opioid epidemic, according to a recently unsealed
whistleblower case. Former employees at the wholesale drug distribution giant claim
that McKesson would hide the extent of its security issues from the federal
government and falsely represented that it would comply with two settlement
agreements. Millions of addictive pain pills were diverted to the black market as a
result, according to the lawsuit. Here is how that happened. According to the lawsuit,
McKesson simply reshipped orders when products were not received or were
incorrectly labeled and did not investigate or report the problem. This led to the drug
continuing to be sent to the wrong hands. That is how the millions of pills ended up
there. Those actions violate the False Claims Act, the whistleblowers argue, and the
company's alleged negligence and overt malpractice stoked one of the largest public
health crises in history. "McKesson could easily tighten security to significantly reduce
the illegal diversion of opioids, but McKesson refuses to take these necessary
measures because doing so would adversely impact McKesson's profitability," the
amended complaint reads. This evidence shows that McKesson and Purdue care about
profit more than the lives of the patients.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/27/health/johnson-and-johnson-opioids-oklahoma.ht
ml
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49452373
https://www.modernhealthcare.com/legal/mckesson-hid-security-flaws-fueled-opioid-epi
demic-lawsuit-alleges

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Introduction: According to the US National Archives, during the Vietnam War,

Limitations: We will be limiting this topic to 3 companies’ faults, Purdue

Contention 2: Our second point focuses on Purdue Pharmaceuticals and

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